There are a lot of opportunities in the day for something to happen that might prompt you to think “wow, that’s one in a thousand”, though. It wouldn’t have been worth wasting a moment wondering if it was coincidence unless you had some reason to suspect an alternative hypothesis, like that it changed because the mouse moved.
I think there are less opportunities than you think. I could look at the clock and see that it’s precisely on the half-hour; that’s the only thing that comes to mind. Also, I can’t figure out what your second paragraph is all about; I found your comment confusing overall.
There are a lot of opportunities in the day for something to happen that might prompt you to think “wow, that’s one in a thousand”, though. It wouldn’t have been worth wasting a moment wondering if it was coincidence unless you had some reason to suspect an alternative hypothesis, like that it changed because the mouse moved.
bit that makes no sense deleted
Recently posted to Reddit.
(Edit: About three days later I realized that that’s a 1⁄100 and not a 1/1000 chance; my bad.)
Exactly.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_sharpshooter_fallacy
I think there are less opportunities than you think. I could look at the clock and see that it’s precisely on the half-hour; that’s the only thing that comes to mind. Also, I can’t figure out what your second paragraph is all about; I found your comment confusing overall.
I’ve noticed a few times when the size of a computer folder was exactly 666 MB.
AngryParsley noticed when my LW karma was exactly 666.
Apparently I even took a screenshot of that event, but I missed when I got 2^8 karma.
Second part made no sense on re-reading; I’ve deleted it. Sorry about that.
I’ll see if I can think of some examples...