What if, instead of going to college in order to avoid the draft, Robin Williams had, in fact, gone on to serve in Vietnam? Would he have still gotten into comedy? What effect, if any, would the experience have had on his life and/or career?
People soon noticed that the lottery numbers were not distributed uniformly over the year. In particular, November and December births, or dates 306 to 366, were assigned mainly to lower draft numbers representing earlier calls to serve (see figure). This led to complaints that the lottery was not random as the legislation required. Analysis of the procedure suggested that mixing 366 capsules in the shoe box did not mix them sufficiently before dumping them into the jar.