In our last look at probability and the Toronto Maple Leafs’ playoff chances, someone said something interesting in the comments. It was about fatalism or fate.
This is an old idea that all of us humans of various sorts seem to like to make stories about. In cultures heavily influenced by the Greeks, we have tales of three women who control the destiny of every person.
They spin the thread, measure it and then ultimately cut it. It’s a story about life and death and about the unpredictability of it all. Some outside force cuts the thread; we don’t control our future.