The most effective way to weigh up decisions that involve quantifiable risk is through a calculation called expected value, or EV for short. So, it’s worth spending 10 minutes understanding how to calculate expected value.
Author: tinstaafl
The illusion of diets, alternate medicine & anti-ageing creams
Much like gambling, the diet and beauty industry generally offers negative expected value, so what drives their continued growth, despite the absence of hard evidence that they deliver any tangible results?
How Michael Larson hustled Press Your Luck
Read the story of how Michael Larson, an ice cream van driver hustled his way to the biggest win in game show history.
What is time preference & why is it changing
If you asked the average person in the street what two things they would want more of, the likely answer would be time and money. Joe Public is working harder for less and increasingly living day-to-day. Economists might explain it through changes in time preference. But what is time preference, and why is it changing? Find out via a four-paragraph history of civilisation, an episode of Atlanta and Bitcoin.
What are crypto’s No Loss Lotteries?
If there was ever a product that promised the Holy Grail of a free lunch, then crypto’s new breed of No Loss Lottery certainly sounds like it fits the bill. Can products like PoolTogether live up to their name or is this a very familiar approach served up in a fancy new wrapper?
The Bitcoin hodler’s dilemma
Hodling is a meme describing the commitment needed to hold Bitcoin, but the unique characteristics of this new internet money present hodlers with a unique dilemma.
What to expect from the War on Crypto
What the US crusades against terror and drugs tell us about the war on crypto and how it might end.
Not Fair – Bitcoin’s Latest FUD
As with all the most difficult FUD, the cry of Bitcoin being ‘Not fair’ bundles together a dangerous cocktail of misconceptions and irrationality that can be broadly grouped and unpicked under three headings: Inequality, Elitist & Too Expensive
CBDCs – Frankenstein Money
Everyone knows of Frankenstein, the story of an experiment to cobble together a super-human from remnant parts of corpses, that goes horribly wrong. Governments are trying something similar right now with money – called CBDCs – and the results could be just as ugly and out of control as Frankenstein’s monster.
Does bitcoin mania compare to the Klondike Gold Rush?
The Klondike is forever associated with the mania of the stampeders, but scratch beneath the surface and you discover a completely different dimension to the Klondike story, just as those who take time to understand Bitcoin’s origins, similarly discover a much richer narrative to that of a speculative magic internet-money.