He never utters the words, “I’m not good with numbers.”
It is better never to say it, because if you do, it is likely to be the fulfillment of a self-prophecy.
If you are in the habit of thinking in numbers, you will reduce wasteful spending.
Lottery tickets, for example. Why do so many people buy them?
Isn’t it the difference in sense about numbers? If you understand the probability of actually buying a ticket, what the expected value is, and the structure of volatility, in which almost all the proceeds go to the first-prize winner, you cannot buy a ticket because it would be a waste of money. But if you don’t understand it, you can easily fall for it.
I myself used to gamble a lot. Pachinko and slots. But the trouble was that I sometimes won. When I won, I would hear loud music and see a large amount of light in front of my eyes. It is burned into my brain and becomes a pleasant sensation, and I become a captive of gambling.
Now that I think about it, it’s a system that makes it hard to keep one’s cool. On the other hand, the people who make the machines must understand how the human brain works before they make them.
I don’t go near any pachinko parlors anymore, though.
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