When I was a professor, I ridiculed (over beer in a bar) graduate students who were telling me it made sense to switch. One student came up with a clever demonstration using the digits in the serial numbers of a dollar bill as a random number generator where he asked me about switching in the 10-door generalization of the Monty Hall problem. With 10 doors and only one prize, it quickly became apparent that I had my head up my arse.
I learned something that day. Two things if you count the monty hall problem. The other: if I am arrogant and obnoxious in my beliefs, I will motivate smart people who disagree with me to figure out how to convince me of my error. Of course, there are no karma points in bars (or at least they are not as obvious) so I did not learn how dangerous such an otherwise productive path is to your karma.
When I was a professor, I ridiculed (over beer in a bar) graduate students who were telling me it made sense to switch. One student came up with a clever demonstration using the digits in the serial numbers of a dollar bill as a random number generator where he asked me about switching in the 10-door generalization of the Monty Hall problem. With 10 doors and only one prize, it quickly became apparent that I had my head up my arse.
I learned something that day. Two things if you count the monty hall problem. The other: if I am arrogant and obnoxious in my beliefs, I will motivate smart people who disagree with me to figure out how to convince me of my error. Of course, there are no karma points in bars (or at least they are not as obvious) so I did not learn how dangerous such an otherwise productive path is to your karma.
Agreed that the reputation costs of being seen as arrogant and obnoxious are not as immediately obvious in some communities as in others.