Re: kids say the darndest things

["Forstater, Mathew" <ForstaterM@xxxxxxxx>]

absolutely not! only someone who looks for the worst in things or someone who
doesn't carefully read or understand the sentence would assume such a thing!

the interesting thing about the sentence is that it can be read in several ways.
if it is read literally, what it says is that under conditions of risk, one has
a 100% chance of knowing the odds, but that under conditions of uncertainty one
has a 50% chance of knowing the odds!

i sent this to John Allen Paulos, author of a number of popular books on math
and philosophy and humor (see his _I Think Therefore I Laugh_), who agreed that
it is one of those cases where a novice delivers an interesting, if somewhat
paradoxical, insight, perhaps unknowingly.

mat

-----Original Message-----
From: Sven R Larson [mailto:larson@xxxxxx]
Sent: Tuesday, April 03, 2001 3:25 AM
To: pkt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: kids say the darndest things


Is this one of your students? If so it looks like a laugh behind his/her
back.
/srl

"Forstater, Mathew" wrote:
>
> "Keynes made the distinction between risk and uncertainty.  When you use risk
> you know your odds, but when there is uncertainty the chance is 50-50."
>
> Principles of Macroeconomics Exam

--
Sven R Larson
PhD; Assistant professor of economics
Department of Social Sciences, Bldg. 22.2
Roskilde University
Pb 260
DK-4000 Roskilde, Denmark
Phone: (+45) 4674 2910