Another Obnoxious Post About The Math Knowledgeable and/orTalented

[gumpzilla]

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1. The mathematical analysis that could be conducted is not always obvious. But it is almost always there. Who on this forum doubts that I wouldn't be a giant favorite playing nine ball against 98% of those players who have equal mediocre shot making skill to mine? I would recognize that if I had only a 30% chance to make a ball I should probably play safe instead. They might not. Playing tennis against an equally horrible player I would know better than he whether to try for a winner or just get the ball over the net. Two examples of numerous endeavors have a much greater mathematical component to them than the average person realizes.

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You're right; I don't doubt that you would not be a huge favorite against 98% of pool players with comparable shot making abilities to yours.

Addressing what you presumably meant to say, this argument is silly. The math involved in this brand of superficial analysis isn't terribly difficult or involved; the far more challenging aspect is being able to make estimates of things like having that 30% chance to make your shot. All the math savvy in the world will not save you from garbage in, garbage out. It is a pretty exact analogy to hand reading in poker.

I think you could make an argument that skill in mathematical reasoning generally corresponds to ability to keep long deductive threads together. That is a skill I could see translating fairly widely.