[thaumasiotes]

Is it actually true though? Compare these two comments buried downthread:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16470358

> The hitchhiker's paradox is correct, taking a point and looking backward or forward will correctly give an average event 10 minutes away, but combining the events to give an average of 20 minutes is false.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16471544

> I thought this sounded funny, and I did a little simulation to see if it was correct. Given his assumptions (poisson with lambda 10), you do not get that answer. I got right around 10, which is what I would expect.

[modeless]

Yes, it is true. I'm not sure what the first commenter is trying to say exactly. The second commenter's code was wrong, and correcting it gives the expected 20 minute average period.