• Welcome
    • Curriculum Vitae
    • About Me
  • Publications
    • Work in Progress
  • Blog
  • Provocations

ZOMBIE NIGHTS v Dumbo’s Law

5/1/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture


Dumbo’s Law
                              Wherein our hero finds a way to hit  it big both financially and intellectually.
 
I woke up in the middle of the nighjt and shouted  EUREKA!!!! (which  is short hand for “I am now in th present state that results from a previous moment of finding,” as I had learned in my beginning  Necromancy course.  Perfect! I shouted EUREKA again real loud, so the grumpy people in the adjoining garret would not complain that they had missed this historic moment and the opportunity to rejoice with me in a discovery that could change my life, solve my financial problems, and  make America great again.
Here’s the scoop. I had found the bright side of the dismal fact reported in the last blog entry  that all the smart people, and some of the not-so-smart ones, like me, thought that Tr*mp was a populist nota demagogue.  I realized in my dreams that the odds-makers in Las Vegas were probably offering high odds on this very matter.  If so, all I had to do was put some money on the line and prove that demagogue was the right word.  And Zombie would help me with that!
I stumbled on the pile of dirty laundry on my way to the second-hand  IBM CPU that my parents had given me fifteen years ago when I was applying to college. Slow, but a real workhorse. Once it came up I  wouldcheck to see what odds Las Vegas was offering.
 
While the CPU was booting up I turned my attention to another part of my new business plan – capital formation, maybe through an IPO or if necessary a bank robbery.  Then in another dazzling insight I realized the funds might be nearer to hand, so  started groping in the cracks and  crevices of the old sofa that had served me so well on so many occasions.  I was disappointed at first, finding only half a granola bar, a meaningless telephone number scribb;ed on the bac of a movie ticket, a moth-eaten ski cap, and a few pennies, dimes and two quarters. But then, way down deep I felt a lump, skillfully extricated it and found –yes! – the wallet I had lost a year and a half ago.  I opened it as fast as I could and found two fives and six one dollar bills.  Two mysteries solved – The wallet must have slipped out when I was making our on the couch  - the only such time in recorded history.  And the mystery of capital formation was solved as well. The odds, I now saw on the screen, were 25 to 1.  All I had to do was prove Trr*mp was a demagogue and I woud have enough to buy an iPad. That would increase my productivity  as a soon-to-be-acclaimed writer and set me on the path to fame and fortune.
I generalized this insight into a  law  that may be applied both to financial and to intellectual matters. With all due modesty  named it after myself: Dumbo’s Law: Always go for he high odds; what have you got to lose?
You ask why go for the long odds rather than playing it safe? Not just because the pay off is bigger , but because you get at the really interesting questions that way. Any dumbo knows that!  
Now all I have to do is find an elegant and convincing proof that Tr*mp is not a populist. He is a demagogue. I’ll get right to work. The laundry can wait.
 
 

 
 
 ]
 
 
May 2017


0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    August 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    October 2014
    June 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    January 2014
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013

    RSS Feed

    Picture