Check out this report in the Sunday Times about sports gambling. Here is one tantalizing excerpt:

In the world of sports gambling, there are two types of people: squares and sharps. Squares make bets based on hunches, hometown favoritism, emotion. Nearly everybody who bets is a square — about 97 percent of sports bettors lose money long-term. Sharps, by contrast, are those few who can figure out how to beat bookmakers. To them, games aren’t athletic contests so much as complex probability generators. “Forget jerseys and pompoms and who is going to lift the Lombardi Trophy,” V. R. told me. “You don’t bet teams. You bet numbers.”

To a great extent, the same thing could be said about almost every decision one makes in life. Every choice is a gamble. So why are most people squares instead of sharps?