Rule 8 teaches us that, if you can't tell who the sucker at the table is, it is probably you. This rule, like the others, can be applied in many situations.
Daughter called from college the other evening with what she saw as a simple request. She wanted to know what her math score on the SAT was. I naturally wondered why that would be relevant to a Sophomore in college. She explained that, although she knew I would think she was crazy, she was thinking about taking Statistics and one of the prerequisites was a math score of a certain level on the SAT.
I told her that she was right. I thought she was crazy. Not only is Statistics notoriously difficult, but the concept of a non-numbers person taking a class that required a certain math score on the SAT is very close to insanity.
While the quick way around the issue was not having access to the SAT score, the application of Rule 8 teaches us that taking Statistics in this case would likely make daughter the sucker at that table. Declining to get in that position is the right thing to do. My only real comfort in this case was the fact that she knew, before she called me, that taking Statistics was going to be a bad idea. I would like to think that's because she was applying the Nine Rules.
