That’s an aggressive problematic gambler mentality.

losvedir 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

No it's not. Gambler's fallacy is "I just flipped tails so heads is more likely now". I read this article as "heads has a 50% chance of coming up so I'll get one eventually" (which is true - law of large numbers).

	▲	mewpmewp2 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I think none of those blanket statements here work. Really it's just odds of finding success vs effort / time spent. And whether that's worth it. Any of the blanket statements could be true depending on what the exact odds are. There could be near 0% chance of finding success and it would be better idea to rethink and spend time elsewhere, or yes, there's 10% chance of finding success and it's significant enough that trying 20 times is enough. If we are talking about e.g. finding a house, if you are not finding any it could very well be that your expectations vs budget is unlikely to find anything and you have to reconsider strategy. Someone could be repeatedly trying to find work, and thinking it's just a matter of time, but really time would be better spent on improving their strategy, resume, or other means. These statements to me seem like motivational non-sense which misrepresent how real world works or what the patterns really are like. At best they just give someone a false understanding of how the world works, at worst they make someone spend all their time in the wrong direction.

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raw_anon_1111 30 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

The difference is that if I apply for 10 jobs at once or put a bid in for 10 houses hoping one will succeed, I’ve lost nothing for trying 10 times.

If I gamble and try 10 times and win once - I have probably lost money.

Even if I interview 10 times and fail 9, I’ve learned something from each interview and I’ve gotten better. That’s also not true from rolling dice.

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xandrius 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

When the outcome is positive, I see nothing wrong. Especially if you lose basically nothing in trying.

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mewpmewp2 3 hours ago | parent [-]

Your time, energy, etc are not nothing. If you think like that, you have already lost and are not making optimal decisions.

	▲	moleperson 17 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		The way I read this is that there are many "games" in life (applying for schools, jobs, dating, etc) where the odds of "winning" each instance are not in your favor, but you only need to win once to win overall. If you treat every absence of a positive outcome as a failure, then you're inevitably going to lose hope and give up. This is in contrast to gambling where you actually do need to win more often than not to win overall.
	▲	xandrius 21 minutes ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		That counter-argument is only valid if you actually had other things to do. If the alternative to send to yet another university application is to start a new match of CoD then it wasn't a loss.

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ashu1461 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Is it ? In gambling your odds are fixed, but in real life, wouldn't you get better at solving problems with each iteration ?

	▲	mewpmewp2 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Depends - are you meaningfully trying to improve or do you keep doing the same thing over and over not getting it?

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Animats 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Indeed. "Just one more roll of the dice and I'll be ahead."

Worse, this guy isn't trying to get a job. He's just trying to get into grad school. Which is no longer a guarantee of a good career, but may be a guarantee of a big debt. Remember that "I did everything right" post on HN a few weeks ago? CS degree from a good school, but nobody wants junior CS people any more.