Learning it to Living it

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.

I am not one to give too much credit to the weird coincidences in my life but a couple of events have always pestered me well into my young adult years. The first event occurred in 6th grade (2007). Our science teacher had just finished our section on certain illnesses and diseases. I was assigned to do my project on Bronchitis, and this was the first time I had ever heard of it. The following week, I got sick— more so than the typical cold I got every couple of months. From my project, I thought it was Bronchitis— though I knew it was probably just me latching onto what I had just learned. However, when I got diagnosed, they confirmed my suspicions. Though it was a strange correlation, I didn’t give it too much energy, because Bronchitis is common among those with asthma— the timing was just weird. But then, learning it to living it happened again. The next year, 7th grade, my history teacher taught us about the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. We were assigned books to read about that time period, and the one I received talked a lot about Dust Storms. Though I live in a desert-type area (Western Colorado), Dust Storms are quite uncommon and most of the residents I spoke to had never seen one before. Until I read that book. For the first time in, I believe, 50 or so years, my area experienced a Dust Storm that turned the sky red and rained mud. And that was the last time we had ever seen one. I could go on and on about different coincidences that struck me as strange—every birthday weather I’ve wished for has come true (even a blizzard), or knowing random small events that were about to happen, or even strange dreams that result in déjà rêvé/déjà vu. But I know these can’t be observed through an empirical lens. The “learning it to living it” has been the most prominent in my life, though I didn’t dedicate much thought to their occurrences after the initial two. Because they’re just coincidences, and as one statistician said, just a misunderstanding of probability.
Total votes: 271
Date submitted:Fri, 07 May 2021 19:02:05 +0000Coincidence ID:11116