1/ Historically, though statistics started in gambling, it has been driven by the risk-management motive, not the luck-creation motive
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2/ One of the earliest applications to be systematized for instance, was life insurance for widows.
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3/ Though many applications in science/tech are agnostic to risk-versus-luck angle, most social uses are on that spectrum and focus on risk
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4/ Application of statistics/probability to stock markets is not about luck either, since beating market beyond historical gains is zero-sum
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5/ i.e. since markets themselves create no wealth, if you beat history, it's because someone else is beaten by history by betting wrong
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6/ There is another field that has this somewhat dismal/pessimistic risk-oriented flavor: psychology
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7/ Throughout much of its history, psychology has been about mental illness and pathologies rather than making good minds better
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8/ When positive psychology came along, many were excited by the promise, but it degeneratd into a bit of a New Age cult.
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