thomblake comments on Misleading the witness - Less Wrong

14 Post author: Bo102010 09 August 2009 08:13PM

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Comment author: thomblake 10 August 2009 10:26:39PM 3 points [-]

I can't think of a good explanation for anyone picking the $500

I agree with Vladimir Golovin. I definitely think this way - I can think immediately of how useful $500 would be to me, but cannot think of many ways to use a 15% chance of $1M.

Well, I can think of one way - I would take the 15% chance of $1M and then sell it to one of you suckers for $100,000.

Comment author: Alicorn 10 August 2009 11:12:28PM 5 points [-]

Show of hands - who really has $100,000 that they could free up to buy this from thomblake? Personally, I don't think I actually know what 100k is worth to me because I have never had my hands on that much money.

Comment author: MichaelVassar 11 August 2009 05:45:00AM *  1 point [-]

Actually, if he has the $1M, I'm in. I don't have $100K liquid in any normal sense but I could certainly raise it for such a deal and divide the risk and return up among a few people.

Comment author: Alicorn 11 August 2009 04:00:39PM 10 points [-]

He does not have (even in this hypothetical situation) a million bucks. Hypothetically, he's being offered a 15% chance of winning a million bucks.

Incidentally, in a staggering display of risk aversion, I asked a friend how much she'd pay for a 15% chance of a million dollars and she said maybe twenty bucks because those did not seem like "very good odds" to her. -.-

Comment author: CronoDAS 10 August 2009 11:39:58PM *  1 point [-]

I don't have $100,000. I only have about $30,000.

Just how much is a one in seven chance of a million dollars worth to everyone here, anyway? (Offer me a near certainty of $70,000 and I'd start to have second thoughts about taking the gamble.)

Comment author: barrkel 11 August 2009 05:30:12AM 1 point [-]

Exactly. If someone has $1.1M, spending $0.1M on a 15% chance of $1M is a good deal. Someone who has $0.05M and has to go into debt to buy the 15% chance is very probably insane.