Man’s faith in statistics crushed after 17th straight loss in rock paper scissors

Naive Haider, 23, has become an internet sensation after going live on Facebook to vent his frustration at his own misfortune.  

After suffering from a string of bad experiences in his personal and professional life, he decided to put his misery on display online. Twenty-seven minutes into his rant, in response to a commenter's scepticism about the extent of his bad luck, Naive invited a friend of his into the live stream to prove his point.

The two live streamers then proceeded to play 17 games of rock paper scissors in a row, all of which Naïve lost. At first, Naive looked like he felt vindicated when he lost the first 4 or 5 games, smiling at the camera and telling commenters they should have believed him when he said he had the worst luck in the world.

But after losing half a dozen games, his smile seemed to turn into ashes in his mouth. With a look of horror, he kept playing on and kept losing, until 17 games went by and he silently turned off the livestream.

The internet took over from there, with the video racking up thousands of views and shares. We reached out to Naive Haider for comment.

"I thought I was unlucky but I never knew I would've become a statistical anomaly," he said. "I'm scared about going out now. Am I the sort of person they made the Final Destination movies about?"

Statisticians around the world have been poring over the video to explain what occurred in the video. We spoke to Shonkha Khobish, associate professor of statistics at Shahbagh University, to get the academic view on this.

"This is great for our community of statisticians. It has sparked interest in the discipline among the public and will let me publish at least three research papers, so I can finally finish my PhD," they said.

Naive Haider, however, has not been receptive to the hundreds of calls he's been getting from researchers since the video was released.

"Look, man, I don't think I believe in statistics anymore. I don't think I believe in anything, to be honest. The only truth is that I was born with unique bad luck, and the only way forward is to start a cult around it. I'll get to that once I'm done cleaning my shoes, I stepped on some poop this morning."