Groundless rumors go swimmingly.
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Answering a question with a question is questionable.
There exists a theory that in order to reach the top of your profession you need at least 10,000 hours of focused practice requiring:
Do you think that Paul McCartney struggled with composition for 10,000 hours in order to write his song Yesterday ? In other words: The 10,000-hour rule may be applicable to some performers, but not to all creators. Speaking of creators, the claim about the need to step outside your comfort zone is also questionable. Young Paul McCartney did not waste his time trying to compose sonatas and symphonies. Either children or books, this was the meaning of life according to Nietzsche. Good thinking, but unfinished, since Nietzsche avoided the question of quality. It's elementary, my dear Nietzsche, quality can be negative. Imagine how much better the world would be:
Let us start with the observation that for m >= 2 the n-th centered 2m-gonal number is of the form (2m/2)*n*(n+1) + 1 (details here). Therefore, the centered 2m-gonal number C and the centered 2m-gonal number whose index is C, i.e. the number (2m/2)*C*(C+1) + 1, are coprime.
Therefore, any sequence of centered 2m-gonal numbers, whose first term a(1) is any centered 2m-gonal number and whose general term is of the form a(n) = (2m/2)*C*(C+1) + 1, where C = Product_{i=1..n-1} a(i), is a sequence of pairwise coprime centered 2m-gonal numbers. Corollary: The above, by the Fundamental theorem of arithmetic, implies that there are infinitely many ways to prove the infinitude of primes. Example: Taking as a seed the centered square number 1 (see OEIS A001844), we can construct the following sequence of pairwise coprime centered square numbers: 1, 5, 61, 186661, 6482415409615261, 272402172694009346312913190157283525183169345861, ... "Human wisdom remains always one and the same, although it is applied to diverse objects. It is just as unchangeable by their diversity as sunlight is by the diversity of the objects it illuminates," Descartes wrote. Wrong! Wisdom is not always one and the same. Descartes's great philosophical and mathematical wisdom was not matched by his intrapersonal, geographical and health-related wisdom. That is why he substituted his:
How many more important things would have Descartes created had he exercised his great wisdom to politely decline the Queen of Sweden's offer to give her math lessons at dawn! How disappointing it is when one invents something seemingly interesting and someone else diminishes it by quoting G. H. Hardy's "Any fool could have guessed Goldbach's conjecture".
Neither Hardy himself nor his apologists thought to reflect on his inappropriate statement, which is also a conjecture, but an unimportant one*. ______________________________________________________ * that is why no one has attached Hardy's name to it and no one has tried to prove it At schools and universities, they teach us how:
On the one hand, this is good: you get your knowledge "free and easy". On the other hand, it's demotivating: you say "This is magic. This is how it must be done, but I can't do magic" and give up trying to do things in your own way. And the goal should be exactly this: to learn to do things in your own way. It's elementary, my dear Watson, not everyone can write like Chekhov, and they don't have to. Let us take for example Dick Fosbury. At school he was not at the level of the best jumpers, it was difficult for him to coordinate his movements. That is why, slowly and at the cost of a lot of sweat and severe injuries, he invented a new style of jumping. Today, everyone follows this style, but no one has proven it is optimal. There are probably other successful styles of high jumping, but they are waiting to be discovered by an outsider unable or unwilling to jump like Fosbury. The wisdom of philosophers does not apply to rock. You cannot enter the same river twice, but you can enter the same band many times. Is there a better example than Yes ? No!
I fully subscribe to Sam Goldwyn's opinion that movies are for entertainment, messages should be delivered by Western Union. That is why I find it very strange that in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's logo, right under the name of Goldwyn, I see the text "Art for art's sake". They probably wanted to make Goldwyn roll in his grave, didn't they?
Some believe writing means translating feelings into words. It is no accident their writing is unreadable, since the chaos of feelings has turned into a chaos of words.
True writing is describing sights, people, events, or ideas that evoke feelings. To repeat, do not try to register feelings, but to evoke them. Life, like the equation x^2 + 1 = 0, has no real solutions.
Животът, подобно на уравнението х^2 + 1 = 0, няма реални решения. Q: If realizing your potential is all about hard and long work, why do they use the words "unlocking your potential"?
A: The hard and long work has nothing to do with the act of unlocking itself, but with finding, among thousands of locks and keys, the combination that works. Pay no attention to what the critics say; there has never been a statue erected to a critic. This is what Finnish composer Sibelius used to say. I read between the lines and agree, but can't help noticing the following: Sibelius was a composer, not a sculptor. Why was he so focused on statues? He must have wanted one for himself.
People show their appreciation in several ways: a) erecting statues to you, b) dedicating poems, books, songs or symphonies to you, c) naming something after you, which is even better. Long story short, without knowing what Pythagoras looked like, we know what the Pythagorean theorem looks like. Polio sufferer Christy Brown made a heroic effort to become (with the help of his left foot) a writer and artist. He succeeded, but his heroism reached its limit. I don't know what his writings are like, but his paintings look like painted with his left foot. Take a look at his "Pensive Woman". You can hardly see this is a woman and can never guess she is thinking. Long story short, we should choose our heroes not by what they sacrificed, but by what they achieved.
Some psychologists disprove the Law of non-contradiction* on daily basis and make poor Aristotle turn in his grave. How do they do it?
For the benefit of humanity, in their lectures and books they criticize the cognitive biases as weaknesses in human thinking. To the detriment of humanity, they sell their knowledge of cognitive biases to various advertisers and employers (who want to know how to deceive their customers and employees). And in the evening, unlike Aristotle, they sleep peacefully in their beds. ________________________________________________________________ * saying that one thing cannot both be and not be (see here) Do you remember the following aphorism of mine:
They say we use only 10% of our brain capacity. Wrong! Humanity uses only 10% of our brain capacity. It is even worse than that: humanity uses 10% of our brain capacity, but often these are the wrong 10%. Let's take for example Alfred Krupa, a Croatian artist of Polish origin. Humanity praises him as the first human who painted: a) with oil paints on paper, and b) underwater, but not as the human who invented the suitcase on wheels. Wanna know what "yo mama" joke is? See here. Want some "yo mama" jokes by yours truly? See below.
Yo mama so stupid, she thinks Cold War was against global warming. Yo mama so stupid, she thinks steganography is fast writing. I have noticed that everyone who is for abortion, has already been born. Ronald Reagan
I have noticed that even the most passionate copyright defenders use the alphabet free of charge. Ivan Ianakiev Real people are like real numbers: almost all of them are supposedly normal, but if you want to point which well known ones are, you'll face great difficulties.
Реалните хора са като реалните числа: уж почти всички са нормални, но aко се наложи да посочиш кои от известните са такива, ще срещнеш големи трудности. Q: Which set contains all newly minted politicians, writers and insurance salespeople?
A: The set of those who believe their fairy tales can make our lives better. Q: Which set contains all seasoned politicians, writers and insurance salespeople? A: The set of those who can make us believe their fairy tales make our lives better. Q: If you are so smart, why aren't you rich?
A: Because I prefer giving my smarts for free to selling them below cost. Generally, nobody wants to hear excuses, but everybody hears themselves producing some.
Уж никой не иска да чува оправдания, пък всеки се чува как ги изрича. "The Industrial Revolution made England richer," wrote famous biographer and useful idiot* Walter Isaacson in an article for the Financial Times. Richer than whom, Walter? How big, do you think, is the wealth of England and what method do you use for your estimate?
Countries are not rich, people are. Great minds and patriots like Alan Turing** refused to equate the wealth of the citizens with the wealth of the motherland. That is why, at the beginning of the Second World War, Turing turned his savings into silver bars and buried them in the forest: he was afraid that at some point the government might imagine that there is such an equality and confiscate his savings. _________________________________________________________________ * i.e. uncritical apologist for industrial capitalism ** who saved more lives in World War II than anyone else (according to Churchill) In a capitalist and democratic society, they say, you are free to choose. Nonsense! You can choose (and buy) any car you want, but the choice of where to park it is extremely limited.
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