All it takes is for one to work out

https://alearningaday.blog/2025/11/28/all-it-takes-is-for-one-to-work-out-2/

35•herbertl•35m ago

Comments

mhog_hn•14m ago

On the one hand it is a wholesome article. On the other hand - so much wasted potential of people squeezing out the last bits when competing. Nash equilibria can suck

hugodan•9m ago

That’s an aggressive problematic gambler mentality.

xandrius•8m ago

When the outcome is positive, I see nothing wrong. Especially if you lose basically nothing in trying.

ashu1461•2m ago

Is it ? In gambling your odds are fixed, but in real life, wouldn't you get better at solving problems with each iteration ?

losvedir•2m ago

No it's not. Gambler's fallacy is "I just flipped tails so heads is more likely now". I read this article as "heads has a 50% chance of coming up so I'll get one eventually" (which is true - law of large numbers).

Animats•1m ago

Indeed. "Just one more roll of the dice and I'll be ahead."

Worse, this guy isn't trying to get a job. He's just trying to get into grad school. Which is no longer a guarantee of a good career, but may be a guarantee of a big debt. Remember that "I did everything right" post on HN a few weeks ago? CS degree from a good school, but nobody wants junior CS people any more.

maest•5m ago

Related: You should expect to keep getting "no"s until you get a yes. That means, getting a "no" is actually normal, it's not failing.

prophesi•4m ago

Reminds me of Veritasium's recent video[0] on power law distributions.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBluLfX2F_k