Tag Archives: statman

Our ability to find real patterns is a mark of our intelligence, but our intelligence often backfires, as when we identify illusory patterns as real. Imagine that we are facing machines with two levers marked S and B. The machines dispense nothing if we pull the worng lever but they dispense $10 if we pull the right one. We’ll get to pull levers many times. A pattern is programmed into the machine but we do not know what it is… How would we go about the task if we want to get the most money out of the machines? Continue reading →