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To become the Tiger King you must overcome the entire population of tigers.

To become the President, you need only overcome a thousand Florida voters.

To intern the Japanese, you need only overcome two members of SCOTUS (Korematsu v. US)

It isn't necessary for Hawking to be able to trick the average cat into a box. It's sufficient to trick a handful of cats in total.

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This line of reasoning only works in hindsight. Working in real time, you won't know in advance how many Florida voters you will need to win, or which ones.

It's like saying that the way to overcome the population of tigers is to focus on raising and befriending the largest and most cunning tigers, who will then protect you against the rest. Ok, good idea, but unfortunately there is no way to know in advance which little tiger cubs will grow up to be the largest and most cunning.

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