UPDATE — “John Derbyshire To Start VDARE.com column—Help Us Pay Him!“
I don’t know why people have so much difficulty thinking statistically, as we behave statistically all the time. The sky is overcast; I have to go out to an event where I’ll be in the open; I take an umbrella. If, after all, it does not rain, do I feel like an idiot for having taken the umbrella? Of course not. I yielded to my inner statistician. I went with the percentages. We all do it a dozen times a day. It’s statistical common sense. The trouble-free black neighborhood is the rain-free overcast day: It happens a lot, but take that umbrella.
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Indeed, the line in the original that first attracted my attention was one that, incredibly, I haven’t seen anyone else either praise or condemn in all this time:
