think lucky

One of the recordings by comedian Linda Smith which was played repeatedly last week was her comment on the National Lottery:

"I don't do the lottery; which makes me marginally less likely to win than someone who does."

Which is an excellent attitude to take, imo.

Meanwhile, in a forlorn attempt to help me concentrate, on the day that the AUT lecturers are on strike, I'm listening to Classic FM and they keep playing adverts for the lottery with the slogan "Think lucky." I've never regarded statistics as a particularly strong point of mine, but even I know that feeling lucky has no bearing whatsoever on the actual probability of a desired event occurring. Of course I'm sure everyone else knows it too, deep down, but it's just something getting on my nerves right now. And having got it off my chest, now I'll try and get back to these papers on the putative causal links between phonological awareness and successful literacy acquisition. What fun.