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Tag: 40% of the sky’s full capacity for rain would actually be kind of a lot

Why I am constantly getting soaked on my way home from work

It’s because I believe in percentages, not in probability. I took against probability on one of our family vacations to Maine, when we stopped in Washington D.C. on the way there to visit some friends. The newspaper was running an article, I remember, that said that one in ten black men in Washington D.C. had a criminal record, and I could not wrap my head around this. “So if you take any ten black dudes from Washington D.C.,” I said, “one of them will always have a criminal record.” “According to this article,” said my mother. “But what if you…

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