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BGonline.org Forums
Historical misconceptions about cube-handling logic
Posted By: Jim Stutz In Response To: Backgammon in the 1930's (Albert Steg)
Date: Thursday, 29 June 2023, at 7:19 p.m.
Love it!
My favorite story that you chronicled: The persistent, widely held misconceptions at the time concerning the basic logic of cube handling. One prominent author argued that all valid doubles offered by competent players must also be valid passes. Another author wrote that the “take with 25%” rule was fallacious, and ridiculed players who believed it to be valid. Nine months later he doubled down on his claim, proffered an example to support his argument, and offered to prop any remaining skeptics. These beliefs were apparently widespread despite the grade-school arithmetic that proves otherwise in a simple equation – an equation that had been published and explained by other authors at the time.
Wandering a little OT here, but this reminds me in some ways of the heated arguments surrounding the Monty Hall Problem, and the young lady who tried to explain its logic to the public, only to be buried under an avalanche of insults and personal attacks, many from prominent mathematicians of the time. See, for example:
https://hackernoon.com/when-everyone-corrected-the-worlds-smartest-woman-yt3r32bm
It seems that many people are hardwired to react this way when confronted with new information or facts that conflict with their existing beliefs or intuition. They start by denouncing the validity of the new-to-them information (I don’t care about the fancy math -- it’s absurd to agree to play for double the stakes when your side is an underdog in an ongoing game.), and then they join up with other like-minded naysayers and ridicule anyone who doesn’t see things the way they do.
Very entertaining project! Thanks for sharing it here, Albert.
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