Twitter sleuth spots a second multi-syllable word hidden in Samuelson's 1979 one-syllable Kelly criterion paper

alexbilz · x · 2026-09-29

In 1979, economist Paul Samuelson famously challenged the Kelly criterion (maximizing mean log wealth) in the Journal of Banking & Finance — writing the entire mocking paper in one-syllable words, with one intentional exception: the last word, "syllable." Twitter user Ronald Lagnado recently found a second multi-syllable word hiding in plain sight, turning the 40-year-old academic prank into a puzzle for readers.

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