A tale of two Elliots

As of the 23rd May 2022 this website is archived and will receive no further updates.

understandinguncertainty.org was produced by the Winton programme for the public understanding of risk based in the Statistical Laboratory in the University of Cambridge. The aim was to help improve the way that uncertainty and risk are discussed in society, and show how probability and statistics can be both useful and entertaining.

Many of the animations were produced using Flash and will no longer work.

A few years ago, I was dating someone named Elliot Hughes. We had been together for about two years, and I was planning to move to another state to live with him after a four-month internship (for which I had to live on-site). The internship was in an isolated area, with only a few other people my age living there, and I kept to myself throughout the first three months. Eventually, with just a few weeks left in my internship, a young man struck up a conversation with me. He said his name was Tote. Another week passed, and he invited me and another young woman to play board games. I noticed he had stuck a label on the game's box with his name: Elliot Hughes. Tote, I found out, was just a nickname. For me, the coincidence of the names wasn't as poignant as the regret I felt for not reaching out to these potential friends sooner.
Total votes: 1223
Date submitted:Fri, 06 May 2016 20:00:09 +0000Coincidence ID:8539