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In American culture the coin toss is the paradigm of the random event. A coin toss decides who kicks off the Super Bowl. Looked at another way, a coin toss is not random at all. It is physics.

— William Poundstone Fortune's Formula (2005)

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More quotes by William Poundstone

Use "entropy" and you can never lose a debate, von Neumann told Shannon - because no one really knows what "entropy" is.

Fortune's Formula (2005)

The ultimate compound return rate is acutely sensitive to fat tails.

Fortune's Formula (2005)

The assumption that anything true is knowable is the grandfather of paradoxes.

Labyrinths of Reason (1988)

The best paradoxes raise questions about what kinds of contradictions can occur—what species of impossibilities are possible.

Labyrinths of Reason (1988)

Your second ducat, like your second million, is never quite as sweet.

Fortune's Formula (2005)

All William Poundstone quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: William Poundstone (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.