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Today, a 16 year old boy died in a road accident on the way to school. Sigh..i feel really sorry for his family. I think it is a pity because he is going to take his O level examinations in a few months and he has such a wonderful life ahead of him. This reminds me of how life is precious~ once gone, it will never come back. All of a sudden, everything is gone.
I don't know what is the occasion today but all my lecturers have a common topic~ football. He started talking about odds and even showed us the Singapore Pools website. Explained why are the odds higher with certain football teams...showed us his "reference book" and that he has done his homework....pictures of the stadium in England and of course a picture of himself to show evidence that he actually was there. To watch a football match costs 600 pounds!! But they only sell in the form of season package bah...so he said it costs 60 000 pounds!! I think that is insane. Oh ya..the top student of the cohort, when the examinations results are out next year, will get to go to London with him to watch a football match.
There is an interesting article about probability in my notes. haha was reading it during lecture. I am going to include that here.
It is about the probability of finding a relationship though it is highly debated. This article is specially dedicated to all his students. haha
The study shows the list of "essential ingredients" one may consider. Plus the comments that the lecturer included in (those in brackets) is funny.
Essentials that a typical person look out for
Sex: Opposite sex ( of course..unless...)
Age: Between 20 and 40 ( look at Liz Taylor )
Religion: Same as mine ( who cares )
Intelligence: More than 140 ( by which/whose yardstick )
Values: Liberal ( by Eastern/Western standards )
Occupation: Self-supporting occupation ( if one is self-supporting, why marry, just cohabit)
Activity: Active in sports and social life
Kids: No kids
Personality: Funny, interesting, warm, passionate, considerate
Sexuality: sexually assertive ( at which level of prowess)
Attractiveness: of average attractiveness ( something like Tom Cruise/ Julia Roberts)
Bad habits not wanted: smoking, excessive drinking
On top of these, he/she must be unattached and the potential couple must love each other.
Quite a reasonable list, isn't it? Of course, other criteria may be termed as "essential ingredients", but for simplicity sake, let's leave them out.
Now, I list them again, this time with the probability attached.
Essentials Probability
Opposite Sex 1/2
Between 20 and 40 1/6
Same Religion 1/8
Of IQ more than 140 1/100
Liberal 1/6
Self-supporting 1/2
Active in sports and social life 1/2
Doesn't smoke or drink excessively 1/2
Unattached 1/2
Likes me 1/6
The probability of meeting such a person with all the above qualities is ......
* calculating in progress.....*
is........1/5529600!!!!
( by the multiplication law of probability, assuming that these events are independent, although they may not be the case in real life)
In layman terms, this means that the chances are slightly worse than 1 in 5 million!!!
( This person probably has to search outside Singapore to find his/her ideal partner!)
Oops...his/her expectations may be too high.
Now suppose that person is willing to settle for someone with an IQ of more than 100, the probability now becomes 1/5. But still in 1 in 1/4 million is still too high!
Of course, one can improve the odds by focusing one's search within a particular social environment which has the effect of removing one of the components in the chain of joint probabilities. But still, the odds of finding the "Person of the List" are as low to begin with.
Many people search endlessly for their "Person of List" because they believe that he/she is someone special who deserves the best. But the sad fact is that virtually every single person believes this and is therefore searching hard for a mate who meets all his/her criteria.
The lecturer's recommendations
That each of us must reach a private decision that we are all, ordinary, or at least less than perfect and that looking for the perfect partner can be an exercise in futility.
Why not settle for an "Almost", a person who is missing a few of what we think to be the essentials.
Be realistic.
Very few people, indeed, can find his Dream Girl or her Prince Charming as we know that they only exist in fairy tales.
* End of article*
writtern @8:30 PM
