So I'm finally back to posting, however briefly it may last. When I'm not posting, I'm practicing being assertive with large bureaucracies which are preventing my internet connection from working. While mildly entertaining for the first few hours, it gets a bit old after a while.
Meanwhile, I've been thinking about tigers. Strangely enough, I have this memory of watching a Nature show or something when I was young (8ish?) on tigers and their hunting habits. One of the few facts that stuck with me is that tigers only succeed about 1 in 20 tries. (The scary part is that I recalled the statistic correctly: See here.) For some strange reason, that memory has been floating around in my brain recently - I haven't thought about it in ages. Well, at least 10 years.
I wonder how many tries most of our goals take in life. How many do we train ourselves to expect? Can I imagine going through 20 girlfriends to find a wife? What would I think of a woman who had been through 20 serious boyfriends? (Yes, the math majors will note that a success rate of 5% implies that, on average, success happens on the 10th event, not the 20th.)
Do we train students to expect 10 or more job interviews before landing a job? Or 10 tries to pass organic chemistry?
Perhaps perseverance in the ability to keep pursuing a vision after the first 19 setbacks. Or perhaps insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.
And I'm still working up my thoughts on tongues. Just been too busy dealing with tigers to and assertiveness to make much progress.
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I've been pondering this and think I've come up with something! Perhaps it's not the tiger we should be focusing on in our assessment of statistical success but the OTHER animals, the tigers' prey. It's pretty good that collectively animals can escape utter disaster 95% of the time, don't you think? The power of community. -- Ruth
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