Hacker News Reader

Importantly - you don't have to know the odds of the coin ahead of time, or which side is more likely. You only need to know that it is consistent.

View on HN

The odds are important to know because if someone gave you a trick coin that always lands on heads, you will be flipping coins until the end of the universe. And I'm sure you have more important things to do than that.

Nah, you can put in a rule to stop. It would be better to know ahead of time, but you don't need to.

> you will be flipping coins until the end of the universe

Reminds me of one of my favorite movies, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, which opens with just such a scenario[1].

[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjOqaD5tWB0

Reply on news.ycombinator.com