A few nights ago, I was watching a show about people that have been attacked by various forms of marine life. There was a man that was stabbed by a marlin’s bill, another man that was bitten by a beaver, that kind of thing. The best segment though, was the one where a giant moray eel bit a diver’s thumb off and ate it. It seems that the diver had built a ‘relationship’ with this particular eel by feeding it sausages. Flesh colored, thumb shaped sausages. The diver answered the question of why he was surprised by the, seemingly obvious, outcome by stating, “I was shocked because there had been no problems up to this point.” Fortunately doctors were able to replace his missing thumb with one of his toes. Unfortunately, there was nothing they could do for his tragic lack of imagination.

The diver made a classic blunder. He assumed that not having body parts eaten the first few times held some significance. He confused a winning bet with a good bet, which is often not the same thing. There are four types of bets: Continue reading →