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“Always Do Your Best” is Questionable Advice

How many times growing up were you told to always do your best? How many times have you told it to your own kids or grandkids?

While it has a catchy ring to it, it is basically terrible, short-sighted advice that’s impossible to follow. Continue reading “Always Do Your Best” is Questionable Advice

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Attending the 2015 Blackjack Ball — Part II of II

This is the second part of a story about this year’s Blackjack Ball. If you didn’t read last week’s installment, check it out here

The game of 21 Questions as devised by Max Rubin is very difficult. Success requires some specific knowledge, often some mathematical ability, and a lot of fortuitous guessing. In 2013, I won this part of the competition (only to blow out quickly in the skills contest). In 2014, my guessing hat must have been on backwards and I didn’t do well at all. In 2015, I barely missed qualifying for the finals. In fact, if I had only correctly answered the question that I had submitted, I would have advanced to the skills contest. I’ll soon describe how this happened. Continue reading Attending the 2015 Blackjack Ball — Part II of II