SorceryForEva 🏳️🌈 🏳️⚧️
Molly White"It is well known that a vital ingredient of success is not knowing that what you’re attempting can’t be done." – Terry Pratchett, Equal Rites
Tor Iver Wilhelmsen@molly0xfff His description of the finance industry is also great:
« But, in truth, it had not exactly been gold, or even the promise of gold, but more like the fantasy of gold, the fairy dream that the gold is there, at the end of the rainbow, and will continue to be there forever - provided, naturally, that you don't go and look. This is known as finance.»
- Terry Pratchett, "Going Postal"
« But, in truth, it had not exactly been gold, or even the promise of gold, but more like the fantasy of gold, the fairy dream that the gold is there, at the end of the rainbow, and will continue to be there forever - provided, naturally, that you don't go and look. This is known as finance.»
- Terry Pratchett, "Going Postal"
Martin Vermeer FCD@toriver @molly0xfff True that. Except for native gold and silver, all money is a matter of belief. Even bitcoin.The words 'credit' and 'creed' have a common etymology.
@martinvermeer @molly0xfff But the precious metals also only hold value because we apply it to them, and a perceived rarity. Money should be an instrument of exchange in the real economy of goods and services, no country would like their economy dictated by some mining operations elsewhere in the world. It made some sort of sense back when kings regulated the production, but… not today.
@toriver @molly0xfff That is true in a sense... you cannot eat gold. It has technological uses though, and jewellery, and teeth - not negligible.
Markus Gerstel@molly0xfff One canonical real life example of this is George Dantzig who was late to class and confused the two unsolved problems written up on the blackboard for homework assignments.
Lisa Melton@molly0xfff Another vital ingredient is the hubris to attempt it in the first place. How hard can it be, right?
RRB@lisamelton @molly0xfff In grad school, I just did what my adviser told me. Later I found out that I was much more productive than was to be expected.
Kevin RussellIt isnt hubris if you think its just homework you have to do quickly.
Ω 🌍 Gus Posey@lisamelton I'm reminded of Arthur Dent's technique for achieving flight.
Eric Brombaugh@molly0xfff Just finished that one up a few days ago. Excellent stuff.
DoNotPunchDownI wish i could find a video of an episode of the Dick Van Dyke Show called "The Return Of Edward Carp" Richard Haydn plays Edward Carp and he recites a hilarious poem. It ends with "so he tackled the thing that couldn't be done and he couldn't do it."
@molly0xfff Proof of this idea:
"During his study in 1939, Dantzig solved two unproven statistical theorems due to a misunderstanding. Near the beginning of a class, Professor Spława-Neyman wrote two problems on the blackboard. Dantzig arrived late and assumed that they were a homework assignment. According to Dantzig, they "seemed to be a little harder than usual", but a few days later he handed in completed solutions for both problems, still believing that they were an assignment that was overdue.[4][6] Six weeks later, an excited Spława-Neyman eagerly told him that the "homework" problems he had solved were two of the most famous unsolved problems in statistics.[2][4] He had prepared one of Dantzig's solutions for publication in a mathematical journal.[7] "
Jargoggles@molly0xfff
It also helps if the odds are a million-to-one.
It also helps if the odds are a million-to-one.
Woonjasbecause million-to-one odds turn up 100% of the time? ;-)
Jen Gentleman@molly0xfff his books are so great
6ff334e@molly0xfff I already experienced that, as I managed to solve some problems people said that were impossible to solve. I just said I didn’t know it was impossible so I solved it.
@molly0xfff but nothing of great importance, just some local problems my former company had with some software stacks and nobody had a clue after many attempts to fix it. Until I explained to everyone what I did it felt like I did the impossible.
LJ@molly0xfff story of everything I've ever done.