If you know me in Real Life you probably know that I only buy and wear black socks. This seems strange to some people at first, but I would like to take the time to say why it is actually a very elegant solution.
I few years ago I got feed up with trying to find matching socks - And instead of solving the problem as it stands, I decided to reduce it into a smaller, but similar problem space. This is called reducing the complexity - In computer science we do this by solving many problems through recursion, when making webpages we use style sheets and instead of visiting hundreds of websites everyday, we use an RSS aggregator.
Buying only black socks is a prime example of reducing complexity.
You might remember the following typical question from High School. Jane has 7 black socks, 4 blue socks and 10 green socks. The room is dark, if Jane pulls out two socks at random what is the probability of Jane getting a pair of black socks?
Can’t do it? What if Jane only owned black socks? What would the answer be then?
6 responses so far ↓
1 Kristie // Feb 27, 2008 at 12:22 am
Huh, you and your sock fetish….
2 Keith Handy // Mar 23, 2008 at 9:51 am
I want to do the same thing — I have a zillion socks — but I’d go with dark gray, because it’s more of a compromise, and black can look silly with some casual outfits (particularly shorts, even though I never wear shorts — it’s just the principle).
The probability question looks a little on the hard side, but I suppose some high school students still have brains. I would figure the total possible pairs out of 7, total possible pairs out of 4, and total possible pairs out of 10, add those three up (total good pairs) and divide that figure into the total possible pairs (all pairs good and bad) out of 21. Is that the right way?
3 admin // Mar 23, 2008 at 9:06 pm
The answer to the probability question is 7/21 multiplied by 6/20 = 1/10
4 Keith Handy // Mar 24, 2008 at 7:02 am
Oh, getting a pair of BLACK socks, I’m sorry, I misread it as getting a pair of matching socks, regardless of color! I feel like an idiot.
5 admin // Mar 24, 2008 at 2:59 pm
Oh, in that case the answer would be approx 34% which isn’t too bad I suppose
6 Stephen Knightly // Mar 27, 2008 at 3:27 am
I do exactly the same thing, for exactly the same reason (reducing complexity). I am sure to never wear black sox with my shorts - or sandals.
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