Eleven Numbers

by Lee Child

Math was abstract and eternal, unchanging, discovered not invented, but when human beings used it, they always left a fingerprint. Not exactly a voice, like literature. More like an X-ray, of the way someone’s mind worked. The cogs and the gears.

“Absent more information, it is what it is. If picking the lock is the aim, then not laying a bet guarantees failure. Whereas laying a bet gives a small but finite chance of success. Therefore laying a bet is the rational course of action.”

I liked viewing this as an analogy/argument to take that forward step, since sitting in stagnation is a choice with a guarantee of failure