If you do much writing at all—blogs, memos, proposals, papers, even e-mail—you know the difficulty of proofreading your own work. It’s all too easy to proofread what you think you wrote rather than what you actually wrote. To paraphrase Simon…
Month: May 2013
Making Things Too Simple
The Monty Hall Problem and the Two Boys Riddle are such great riddles precisely because they exploit our tendency to make things too simple. That is, to (erroneously) “simplify” even to the point of discarding relevant information. But as Albert…
Monty Hall Problem and Two Boys Riddle [Solutions]
Yesterday, I presented two of my favorite probability puzzlers: the Monty Hall Problem and the Two Boys Riddle. If you didn’t see those, you might want to read yesterday’s post before reading the solutions below. None of my millions of…
Riddles: Monty Hall and Two Boys
For more than two decades, the Monty Hall problem stood as my favorite probability riddle. But recently, the Two Boys riddle has replaced Monty Hall as my favorite. Both are excellent riddles that exploit the same underlying weakness in the…
It’s Alright, Ma, Bob Dylan Is Only 72
Bob Dylan, the greatest singer/songwriter ever, was born Robert Allen Zimmerman on this day in 1941. Of course, it’s no more possible to choose a favorite Bob Dylan song than to choose a favorite food, but if I were pressed…
Minneapolis Does Airport Wi-Fi Right!
If you do much travelling, you know how helpful it is to have reasonable wireless internet access (wi-fi) in the terminal; but not all airport wi-fi is created equal. I just returned from a trip that included a brief layover…
Twitter’s Market Strategy Error With TweetDeck
I have been a TweetDeck fan from (TweetDeck’s) day one. However, Twitter’s decision to remove Facebook integration from TweetDeck strikes me as a market strategy error. From Twitter’s blog: “To continue to offer a great product that addresses your unique…
The Global Warming Consensus Gap
The media tends to present every story as having two sides. It makes for good TV—or radio, press, blogs, etc.—to present arguments from “both sides” of the issue. It creates ready-made conflict and absolves the host journalists from actually following…
Welcome to the World Wide Web
It was twenty years ago today Tim Berners-Lee taught the world to play (online)… Technically, it was April 30, 1993 when CERN released the World Wide Web into the public domain. And to commemorate the anniversary, they have resurrected the…
Thirty-one
Clearly, the smartest move I’ve ever made: It’s been a great thirty-one years. My best friend and I have managed to do quite a few things together since then. For example, we… Graduated from UM (three times); moved to Chicago (two times);…