Comment #2

hypersoniq — Wed, 12 Mar 2025 12:17:47 GMT

That's true. Thanks for the reply!

Comment #1

noise-gate — Wed, 12 Mar 2025 04:34:05 GMT

* It’s a game of chance. I am reminded of the fact that no matter how healthy one is, there is always the possibility of one simply dropping dead, being hit by a car, struck by lightning or being betrayed by people we know: the lottery is unpredictable because it’s simply the way it is. If there was a formula to winning the lottery, it would have been discovered a long time ago.

Original Blog Entry: Why do I just not "get it" that the lotteries are unpredictable?

hypersoniq — Tue, 11 Mar 2025 14:12:39 GMT

It has been over 20 years chasing the impossible, generating one pick for a chance at a straight hit... pick 2 to power ball, it does not matter...

Systems, statistics, programs, spreadsheets... and in reality, the few that had a hit were coincidental at best.

So far this journey went from having ideas that I did not know how to implement to being able to write scripts and build spreadsheets to do just about everything but win on a regular basis.

I never was about wheels or trapping because I am too cheap of a player. In most cases I would play one number on one game because any more cash output and it would not be fun anymore.

Granted, I learned more about coding and problem solving with this hobby than I learned taking classes, so it was certainly not all wasted time, but...

What is it that motivates continued work towards what I am sure is an impossible problem? I have walked away for years at a time only to wind up updating severely outdated history files for another try.

Maybe it is an ego thing? I can't be too dumb to figure this out, or can I? I have gained more experience through this foolish quest in spreadsheets and now Python, so it was not ALL wasted time, I just don't get why I don't just finally admit what I want to do can't be done and move that time to a different hobby... I would probably be a better guitar player for sure.

As I write this, I am about to fire up the computer and go back to the Hot/Cold script to make sure it does not encounter a division by zero error, that was a checklist item. The worst part is that I can generate tons of data that I am unsure how to interpret...

I am sure any of us who try to solve the lottery problem have low moments like this... what keeps you going?... [ More ]