{"id":650,"date":"2021-06-21T14:30:17","date_gmt":"2021-06-21T14:30:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/?p=650"},"modified":"2021-06-21T14:30:17","modified_gmt":"2021-06-21T14:30:17","slug":"flipping-usb-connectors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/2021\/06\/21\/flipping-usb-connectors\/","title":{"rendered":"Flipping USB Connectors"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p id=\"9770\">I am not the first person to observe that it sometimes takes several tries to plug in a USB connector (specifically the rectangular&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/USB\">Type A connector<\/a>, which is not reversible). There are&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/knowyourmeme.com\/memes\/usb-insertion-issues\">memes about it<\/a>, there are&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.smbc-comics.com\/?id=2388\">cartoons about it<\/a>, and on sites like Quora,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.quora.com\/Why-do-you-always-have-to-flip-a-USB-twice-when-trying-to-plug-it-in-Shouldn-t-it-have-gone-in-the-first-time-when-you-had-it-the-right-way\">people<\/a>&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.quora.com\/There-is-a-50-chance-of-plugging-in-a-USB-cable-the-right-way-on-the-first-try-Why-does-it-only-happen-20-of-the-time-when-I-do-it\">have<\/a>&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.quora.com\/Why-doesnt-the-USB-go-in-the-first-time-but-does-after-youve-turn-it-a-few-times\">asked<\/a>&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.quora.com\/People-that-can-plug-the-USB-in-on-their-first-try-How\">about<\/a>&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.quora.com\/Why-cant-we-plug-in-USB-devices-correctly-the-first-time\">it<\/a>&nbsp;more than a few times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"5358\">But I might be the first to use Bayesian decision analysis to figure out the optimal strategy for plugging in a USB connector. Specifically, I have worked out how long you should try on the first side before flipping, how long you should try on the second side before flipping again, how long you should try on the third side, and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For a high-level view of the analysis, see <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/MZgb3845Ol?amp=1\">this article in <em>Towards Data Science<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For the details, you can \u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/allendowney.github.io\/ThinkBayes2\/usb.html\">read the Jupyter notebook on the\u00a0<em>Think Bayes<\/em>\u00a0site<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/colab.research.google.com\/github\/AllenDowney\/ThinkBayes2\/blob\/master\/examples\/usb.ipynb\">run it on Colab<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I am not the first person to observe that it sometimes takes several tries to plug in a USB connector (specifically the rectangular&nbsp;Type A connector, which is not reversible). There are&nbsp;memes about it, there are&nbsp;cartoons about it, and on sites like Quora,&nbsp;people&nbsp;have&nbsp;asked&nbsp;about&nbsp;it&nbsp;more than a few times. But I might be the first to use Bayesian decision analysis to figure out the optimal strategy for plugging in a USB connector. Specifically, I have worked out how long you should try on&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/2021\/06\/21\/flipping-usb-connectors\/\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[71,86],"class_list":["post-650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bayesian-statistics","tag-decision-analysis"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Flipping USB Connectors - Probably Overthinking It<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/2021\/06\/21\/flipping-usb-connectors\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Flipping USB Connectors - Probably Overthinking It\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I am not the first person to observe that it sometimes takes several tries to plug in a USB connector (specifically the rectangular&nbsp;Type A connector, which is not reversible). There are&nbsp;memes about it, there are&nbsp;cartoons about it, and on sites like Quora,&nbsp;people&nbsp;have&nbsp;asked&nbsp;about&nbsp;it&nbsp;more than a few times. But I might be the first to use Bayesian decision analysis to figure out the optimal strategy for plugging in a USB connector. Specifically, I have worked out how long you should try on... Read More Read More\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/2021\/06\/21\/flipping-usb-connectors\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Probably Overthinking It\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-06-21T14:30:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"AllenDowney\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AllenDowney\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AllenDowney\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"AllenDowney\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/2021\/06\/21\/flipping-usb-connectors\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/2021\/06\/21\/flipping-usb-connectors\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"AllenDowney\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/4e5bfb2e9af6c3446cb0031a7bf83207\"},\"headline\":\"Flipping USB Connectors\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-06-21T14:30:17+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/2021\/06\/21\/flipping-usb-connectors\/\"},\"wordCount\":163,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"bayesian statistics\",\"decision analysis\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/2021\/06\/21\/flipping-usb-connectors\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/2021\/06\/21\/flipping-usb-connectors\/\",\"name\":\"Flipping USB Connectors - Probably Overthinking It\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2021-06-21T14:30:17+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/2021\/06\/21\/flipping-usb-connectors\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/2021\/06\/21\/flipping-usb-connectors\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/2021\/06\/21\/flipping-usb-connectors\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Flipping USB Connectors\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Probably Overthinking It\",\"description\":\"Data science, Bayesian Statistics, and other ideas\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Probably Overthinking It\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/probably_logo.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/probably_logo.png\",\"width\":714,\"height\":784,\"caption\":\"Probably Overthinking It\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/x.com\/AllenDowney\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/allendowney\/\",\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/allendowney.bsky.social\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/4e5bfb2e9af6c3446cb0031a7bf83207\",\"name\":\"AllenDowney\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fb01b3a7f7190bea1bbf7f0852e686c2f8c03b099222df2ce4bc7926f15bcb43?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fb01b3a7f7190bea1bbf7f0852e686c2f8c03b099222df2ce4bc7926f15bcb43?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"AllenDowney\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/author\/allendowney_6dbrc4\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Flipping USB Connectors - Probably Overthinking It","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/2021\/06\/21\/flipping-usb-connectors\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Flipping USB Connectors - Probably Overthinking It","og_description":"I am not the first person to observe that it sometimes takes several tries to plug in a USB connector (specifically the rectangular&nbsp;Type A connector, which is not reversible). There are&nbsp;memes about it, there are&nbsp;cartoons about it, and on sites like Quora,&nbsp;people&nbsp;have&nbsp;asked&nbsp;about&nbsp;it&nbsp;more than a few times. But I might be the first to use Bayesian decision analysis to figure out the optimal strategy for plugging in a USB connector. Specifically, I have worked out how long you should try on... Read More Read More","og_url":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/2021\/06\/21\/flipping-usb-connectors\/","og_site_name":"Probably Overthinking It","article_published_time":"2021-06-21T14:30:17+00:00","author":"AllenDowney","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@AllenDowney","twitter_site":"@AllenDowney","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"AllenDowney","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/2021\/06\/21\/flipping-usb-connectors\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/2021\/06\/21\/flipping-usb-connectors\/"},"author":{"name":"AllenDowney","@id":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/4e5bfb2e9af6c3446cb0031a7bf83207"},"headline":"Flipping USB Connectors","datePublished":"2021-06-21T14:30:17+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/2021\/06\/21\/flipping-usb-connectors\/"},"wordCount":163,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/#organization"},"keywords":["bayesian statistics","decision analysis"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/2021\/06\/21\/flipping-usb-connectors\/","url":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/2021\/06\/21\/flipping-usb-connectors\/","name":"Flipping USB Connectors - Probably Overthinking It","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2021-06-21T14:30:17+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/2021\/06\/21\/flipping-usb-connectors\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/2021\/06\/21\/flipping-usb-connectors\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/2021\/06\/21\/flipping-usb-connectors\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Flipping USB Connectors"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/","name":"Probably Overthinking It","description":"Data science, Bayesian Statistics, and other ideas","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Probably Overthinking It","url":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/probably_logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/probably_logo.png","width":714,"height":784,"caption":"Probably Overthinking It"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/AllenDowney","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/allendowney\/","https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/allendowney.bsky.social"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/4e5bfb2e9af6c3446cb0031a7bf83207","name":"AllenDowney","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fb01b3a7f7190bea1bbf7f0852e686c2f8c03b099222df2ce4bc7926f15bcb43?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fb01b3a7f7190bea1bbf7f0852e686c2f8c03b099222df2ce4bc7926f15bcb43?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"AllenDowney"},"url":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/author\/allendowney_6dbrc4\/"}]}},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=650"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":651,"href":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650\/revisions\/651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}