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Comment by thrill | Hacker News Reader

'Jack, a math major at the Naval Academy, has run the numbers again and again, and it just doesn’t make sense. “At some points I think we were within even half a mile of him,” Andrew said, “but it wasn’t until the end that we came onto him.'

Come on man ... you quit looking once you found him - that's why it's called 'the end' - no special math required.

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Isn't it weird how things are always in the last place you look?

You can fix this by continuing to look after you’ve found something. “Phew, glad my keys were in the first place I looked, and not the next ten”

Just in case you find any extra keys to unlock those bonus rooms, it's just good completionist practice.

The Fallout 3 "I'm going to find every last tin can in this creepy abandoned building" method.

It's important you do this to defeat timing based attacks that might try to determine where you usually put your keys based on the time taken to cut short the search.

I like to start with a failing unit test by deliberately looking for the keys somewhere I know they’re not.

It’s important not to end the experiment prematurely in order to obtain a proper set of data. Otherwise we end up with conclusions like, “it’s always in the last place you look.”

You never know, there could be more keys. Confirmation bias is a powerful thing.

I always do my searches in constant time, to foil timing attacks.

I find they’re often in the first place you look but that you miss the on the first cursory look.

A lot like getting the USB plug right the first time but not realizing it. Happens every time.

It’s almost always in the Eureka Zone.

https://nevalalee.wordpress.com/2014/04/19/the-eureka-zone/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3NTtagBmKY

the actual saying is "last place you think to look" or "last place you expect" (because it's so obvious / uninteresting). but that doesnt make a joke.

"The end" could also be the point where they call it quits regardless of if they found him.

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