Mathematics

Mathematics is interesting. It provides a form of measure that enables us to quantify every single aspect of life. Twelve years of mathematics makes you really proficient in the discipline too. Yet applications to real life are rare, if any at all.

Take the world cup for a quick example. Given that there are two teams playing at each match and there always will be a better team based on the FIFA rankings, common sense would prevail and one would assume the better team to win. However the countless disappointments so far in the tournament only serve to disprove this notion of correlation, and that every statistical occurrence is random and unpredictable. Also for the fact that this has occurred for 100% of all matches, it goes to show that any mathematical prediction of events is unreliable and the best statisticians will be the punters who guess scores accurately each time. Hence my advocacy for their employment as mathematics teachers instead. However this is problematic and will be met with limited success since football betting is much better paying than teaching, especially when you are good at it.

Another related concept is probability. Often in the stats papers you see how the probability of students passing a test increases with increased amounts of studying time. Sounds like a simple enough thing to wrap your head around, you say. You mug your ass off, burning through notes with flaming skulls, finally marvelling in awe as you step into the exam hall. Yes! The odds are in my favour!

That is exactly how probability works. It's just not how reality works.

This ended more depressingly than I thought it would.