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A made-up game to illustrate some points about skill and luck

Posted By: Timothy Chow
Date: Tuesday, 27 January 2015, at 1:57 a.m.

In Response To: A made-up game to illustrate some points about skill and luck (Bob Koca)

You think it's more analogous because it's the "same" decision repeated with different outcomes? That's fair enough, but I think it's a bit of an illusion to think that a free throw is exactly the "same" task each time.

In any case, if basketball free throws seem too "lucky" to you, then we can replace it with some other skilled task that doesn't seem so "lucky." Maybe you have to spell a randomly chosen word from the dictionary, or you can even have to solve a backgammon puzzle that is chosen randomly from an enormous corpus of such puzzles. If we do this, are you still tempted to say that we should call it "luck" when you get an easy puzzle to solve? If so, then it would seem that you should also want to call it "luck" when my PR for a particular match comes out lower than usual.

Messages In This Thread

• A made-up game to illustrate some points about skill and luck
  Timothy Chow -- Monday, 26 January 2015, at 5:28 p.m.
  • A made-up game to illustrate some points about skill and luck
    Stick -- Monday, 26 January 2015, at 5:48 p.m.
  • A made-up game to illustrate some points about skill and luck
    Jason Lee -- Monday, 26 January 2015, at 5:50 p.m.
  • A made-up game to illustrate some points about skill and luck
    Bob Koca -- Monday, 26 January 2015, at 6:04 p.m.
    • A made-up game to illustrate some points about skill and luck
      Maik Stiebler -- Monday, 26 January 2015, at 8:53 p.m.
    • A made-up game to illustrate some points about skill and luck
      Maik Stiebler -- Monday, 26 January 2015, at 9:05 p.m.
      • A made-up game to illustrate some points about skill and luck
        Bob Koca -- Tuesday, 27 January 2015, at 5:38 p.m.
    • A made-up game to illustrate some points about skill and luck
      Timothy Chow -- Tuesday, 27 January 2015, at 12:14 a.m.
      • A made-up game to illustrate some points about skill and luck
        Bob Koca -- Tuesday, 27 January 2015, at 12:55 a.m.
        • A made-up game to illustrate some points about skill and luck
          Timothy Chow -- Tuesday, 27 January 2015, at 1:57 a.m.
          • A made-up game to illustrate some points about skill and luck
            Fatboy -- Tuesday, 27 January 2015, at 2:11 a.m.
  • A made-up game to illustrate some points about skill and luck
    Phil Simborg -- Monday, 26 January 2015, at 9:43 p.m.
    • A made-up game to illustrate some points about skill and luck
      Timothy Chow -- Tuesday, 27 January 2015, at 12:21 a.m.
      • A made-up game to illustrate some points about skill and luck
        Phil Simborg -- Tuesday, 27 January 2015, at 2:10 a.m.
        • A made-up game to illustrate some points about skill and luck
          Bob Koca -- Tuesday, 27 January 2015, at 2:33 a.m.
        • A made-up game to illustrate some points about skill and luck
          Timothy Chow -- Tuesday, 27 January 2015, at 3:02 a.m.
  • A made-up game to illustrate some points about skill and luck
    Stein Kulseth -- Monday, 26 January 2015, at 11:14 p.m.
    • A made-up game to illustrate some points about skill and luck
      Timothy Chow -- Tuesday, 27 January 2015, at 12:28 a.m.
  • A made-up game to illustrate some points about skill and luck
    sita -- Tuesday, 27 January 2015, at 3:55 p.m.
    • I'm beginning to see the "disconnect" here
      Phil Simborg -- Tuesday, 27 January 2015, at 4:08 p.m.
      • I'm beginning to see the "disconnect" here
        Timothy Chow -- Wednesday, 28 January 2015, at 12:06 a.m.
    • A made-up game to illustrate some points about skill and luck
      Tom Keith -- Tuesday, 27 January 2015, at 5:39 p.m.
      • A made-up game to illustrate some points about skill and luck
        Timothy Chow -- Wednesday, 28 January 2015, at 12:06 a.m.
        • A made-up game to illustrate some points about skill and luck
          Tom Keith -- Wednesday, 28 January 2015, at 1:10 a.m.
          • A made-up game to illustrate some points about skill and luck
            Timothy Chow -- Wednesday, 28 January 2015, at 1:43 a.m.
            • A made-up game to illustrate some points about skill and luck
              Tom Keith -- Wednesday, 28 January 2015, at 2:06 a.m.
              • A made-up game to illustrate some points about skill and luck
                Timothy Chow -- Thursday, 29 January 2015, at 3:30 a.m.
          • A made-up game to illustrate some points about skill and luck
            Maik Stiebler -- Wednesday, 28 January 2015, at 8:19 a.m.
            • A made-up game to illustrate some points about skill and luck
              Bob Koca -- Wednesday, 28 January 2015, at 8:53 a.m.
              • My Koca disconnect problem
                Phil Simborg -- Wednesday, 28 January 2015, at 11:01 a.m.
              • A made-up game to illustrate some points about skill and luck
                Maik Stiebler -- Wednesday, 28 January 2015, at 12:22 p.m.
            • A made-up game to illustrate some points about skill and luck
              Tom Keith -- Wednesday, 28 January 2015, at 9:30 a.m.
              • A made-up game to illustrate some points about skill and luck
                Maik Stiebler -- Wednesday, 28 January 2015, at 2:09 p.m.
  • A made-up game to illustrate some points about skill and luck
    ah_clem -- Tuesday, 27 January 2015, at 7:39 p.m.
    • A made-up game to illustrate some points about skill and luck
      Maik Stiebler -- Tuesday, 27 January 2015, at 8:49 p.m.
    • A made-up game to illustrate some points about skill and luck
      Timothy Chow -- Wednesday, 28 January 2015, at 12:18 a.m.
      • A made-up game to illustrate some points about skill and luck
        sita -- Wednesday, 28 January 2015, at 10:11 a.m.
        • A made-up game to illustrate some points about skill and luck
          sita -- Wednesday, 28 January 2015, at 12:38 p.m.
  • we get out, what we put in
    rambiz -- Wednesday, 28 January 2015, at 7:39 p.m.
    • we get out, what we put in
      Bob Koca -- Thursday, 29 January 2015, at 3:27 a.m.
      • we get out, what we put in
        rambiz -- Thursday, 29 January 2015, at 5:27 a.m.
        • we get out, what we put in
          Daniel Murphy -- Thursday, 29 January 2015, at 1:44 p.m.
        • we get out, what we put in(deed)
          rambiz -- Friday, 30 January 2015, at 6:33 a.m.