> I used to joke that in any meeting with more than 4 people, at any given time at least 1 person is day dreaming.
You don't even have to joke: you can put it in statistical context. If people day dream around 45 % of the time spent in meetings, and assuming that day dreaming time is distributed independently among meeting-goers, there's only a 0.55^5 = 5 % chance of nobody day dreaming at any given moment.
If you're willing to accept a lower p-value and go for an even money bet, people only need to day dream for 14 % of the meeting for you to win money in the long run.
Of course, in practise, day dreaming time is probably not independent: multiple people probably think of the same part of the meeting as dull.
You don't even have to joke: you can put it in statistical context. If people day dream around 45 % of the time spent in meetings, and assuming that day dreaming time is distributed independently among meeting-goers, there's only a 0.55^5 = 5 % chance of nobody day dreaming at any given moment.
If you're willing to accept a lower p-value and go for an even money bet, people only need to day dream for 14 % of the meeting for you to win money in the long run.
Of course, in practise, day dreaming time is probably not independent: multiple people probably think of the same part of the meeting as dull.