If you can be sure of being right only 55 percent of the time, you can go down to Wall Street and make a million dollars a day. If you can’t be sure of being right even 55 percent of the time, why should you tell other people they are wrong?
Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People
Rephrase that and it sounds nonsensical: “If you can’t outperform the stock market, then how can you be sure of anything?” I think Carnegie was just looking for a glib rationalization for his advice to avoid contradicting people whom you want to like you.
What if I am right 9 times out of 10 when I say I am 90% sure of something, but I am never or very rarely more than 50% sure of propositions of the form “This stock’s price will go up/down, over a relevant time frame”?
Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People
Rephrase that and it sounds nonsensical: “If you can’t outperform the stock market, then how can you be sure of anything?” I think Carnegie was just looking for a glib rationalization for his advice to avoid contradicting people whom you want to like you.
What if I am right 9 times out of 10 when I say I am 90% sure of something, but I am never or very rarely more than 50% sure of propositions of the form “This stock’s price will go up/down, over a relevant time frame”?
Death by Lob’s Theorem to this quote.