Three office workers take a coffee break. They choose one of their numbers at random to pay for the coffee as follows. All three flip a coin simultaneously and the one having the different outcome pays for the coffee. If all coins come up the same, then they will flip the coins again. How long does it take to determine who will pay for the coffee? Solution \"When I was young, people called me a gambler. As the scale of my operations increased I became known as a speculator. Now I am called a banker. But I have been doing the same thing all the time\" -- Sir Ernest Cassel I\'m an Investment Wanker. I used to be a banker but more than a decade in the Orc Race, tens of millions earned and lost for the bank, having to survive several boom & bust cycles, thousands of days and nights spent working hard -and playing hard- and a total burn out have contributed to turn me into a wanker. Literally. Well... almost literally, let\'s say that today I could wank all day at the bank but I prefer to spend my time on matters as futile as blogging, kung fu, History, finding out how I can become Superman, learning new skills and Speculation. My transformation that began in early 2008 was at first kind of forced. But since I\'ve understood the way the Orc Race really works and today for nothing on Earth would I willingly run it back again. Running the Orc Race is like monkeys climbing on a coconut tree. You shit on the monkeys below and when you look above all you can see is assholes. At the very very top of the tree you can see IT, the Coconut. IT looks delicious, so tasty, you want IT so much. From time to time you can see a senior monkey has a bite at it, he seems so happy. So you work harder and harder to get to the Coconut. As you climb on the hierarchy tree, pushing other monkeys off on the way, you get closer and closer. Sometimes they even let you touch IT. In some very rare cases, when you really have outperformed and killed a lot of other monkeys, you even can have a tiny tiny piece of IT. The only thing you want then is the whole Coconut, so you work harder and harder, kill more and more monkeys until the day you\'re the one who falls from the tree pushed off by a younger and stronger monkey. But here\'s the sad truth: no monkey can have the whole Coconut, because it belongs to the owner of the tree. The irony is, except for the case of a few billionaires who have been both ultra competent and extremely lucky in their career, most of the time the Coconut tree belongs to millions of shareholders, that\'s other monkeys climbing on a tree. In other words, nobody gets the Coconut..

1. Three office workers take a coffee break. They choose one of their numbers at random to pay for
the coffee as follows. All three flip a coin simultaneously and the one having the different
outcome pays for the coffee. If all coins come up the same, then they will flip the coins again.
How long does it take to determine who will pay for the coffee?
Solution
"When I was young, people called me a gambler. As the scale of my operations
increased I became known as a speculator. Now I am called a banker. But I have been doing the
same thing all the time" -- Sir Ernest Cassel I'm an Investment Wanker. I used to be a banker
but more than a decade in the Orc Race, tens of millions earned and lost for the bank, having to
survive several boom & bust cycles, thousands of days and nights spent working hard -and
playing hard- and a total burn out have contributed to turn me into a wanker. Literally. Well...
almost literally, let's say that today I could wank all day at the bank but I prefer to spend my
time on matters as futile as blogging, kung fu, History, finding out how I can become Superman,
learning new skills and Speculation. My transformation that began in early 2008 was at first kind
of forced. But since I've understood the way the Orc Race really works and today for nothing on
Earth would I willingly run it back again. Running the Orc Race is like monkeys climbing on a
coconut tree. You shit on the monkeys below and when you look above all you can see is
assholes. At the very very top of the tree you can see IT, the Coconut. IT looks delicious, so
tasty, you want IT so much. From time to time you can see a senior monkey has a bite at it, he
seems so happy. So you work harder and harder to get to the Coconut. As you climb on the
hierarchy tree, pushing other monkeys off on the way, you get closer and closer. Sometimes they
even let you touch IT. In some very rare cases, when you really have outperformed and killed a
lot of other monkeys, you even can have a tiny tiny piece of IT. The only thing you want then is
the whole Coconut, so you work harder and harder, kill more and more monkeys until the day
you're the one who falls from the tree pushed off by a younger and stronger monkey. But here's
the sad truth: no monkey can have the whole Coconut, because it belongs to the owner of the
tree. The irony is, except for the case of a few billionaires who have been both ultra competent
and extremely lucky in their career, most of the time the Coconut tree belongs to millions of
shareholders, that's other monkeys climbing on a tree. In other words, nobody gets the Coconut.