Category: InEnglish - mISLANDia

Wittgenstein

7/8/2016

What did Wittgenstein mean when he said, “If the lion could speak, we could not understand him”? Think about the following conversation:

A: What is your zodiac sign?
B: Vegan.
A: There is no such sign.
B: I am very fine, thank you.
A: What the …bleep… are you talking about?
B: You are full of anger. I am sure this is the meat in your diet talking.

Sartre said that hell is other people. Wittgenstein probably thought that lion means other people.

Is your job creative?

7/7/2016

CEOs, conductors of symphony orchestras and many other people believe their jobs are creative. Let us analyze their beliefs, especially the beliefs of those whose job comes with a uniform.

The job of the conductor is considered creative by definition. It is, but the creativity is in the translation of the language of the composer (notes) into the language of the audience (sounds). Concerts themselves are reproducible, it does not matter if:
> you listen to the orchestra or to the record,
> the conductor wears a white tie or not.

The truest creativity is in composing. Mozart did not wear his wig and his best suit when he composed. In their most productive years Beatles stopped performing alive and focused on composing. In the studio, without their rock uniforms and the pressure to look good and modern, they looked quite ordinary but created many of the best songs of modern rock music.

Elections

6/15/2016

We should say a president was elected democratically only if all presidential candidates had been elected democratically.

Universal Suffrage

6/12/2016

Alexis de Tocqueville once said that the sole means of neutralizing the effects of newspapers is to multiply their number. Similarly, universal suffrage is the sole means of neutralizing the effects of reasonable voters.

On the same page

6/1/2016

"We are not alone in the Universe", say those who believe in extraterrestrial life. Of course they are not, there are also those who do not believe in extraterrestrial life.

Imagine all the people ...

5/24/2016

How poor is the imagination of those who cannot imagine they possess a rich imagination?

How poor is the imagination of those who can imagine the infinity of the Universe and of the prime numbers, but cannot imagine the end of oil?

History Lessons: Ronald Reagan and Osama bin Laden

5/23/2016

During the Cold War US president Reagan pressed the “Arms Race: Turbo” button, which made the president of the Soviet Union press the respective button on the soviet keyboard. As a result, the soviets went bankrupt.

According to Osama bin Laden, the costs of Al-Qaeda to press the “9/11 Terrorist Attacks” button were in the region of $500,000. The USA responded by pressing hundreds of buttons. According to Joseph Stiglitz, the total costs associated to only one of them – the “Iraq War” button – were in the region of $3,000,000,000,000. I am not sure who are the next ones going bankrupt, but even with my eyes closed can point at those who have not learned their history lessons yet.

Future and Futurists

5/22/2016

“Imagine a future where learning is as easy as eating and replacing a damaged part of your body is as cheap as visiting a fast-food restaurant”, said a (hungry) American futurist. It is equally easy to imagine a future where eating is as hard as learning and visiting a fast-food restaurant is as expensive as replacing a damaged part of your body.

Loss Aversion

5/9/2016

Psychologists claim that losing $100 produces stronger emotional reaction than finding $100. This confirms an old belief of mine that language reveals to a lesser extent the secrets of reality and to a greater extent the secrets of the speaker. His lack of imagination, for instance.

Use your imagination, my dear psychologists! You might be right that the pain of losing $100 is more intense than the happiness of finding $100, but think about the following:
The happiness of finding the $100 you lost is more intense than the pain you felt when you lost them.

P.S.
December 31 2017
This is what Nassim Nicholas Taleb wrote in Antifragile :
Few objects bring more thrill than a recovered wallet (or laptop) lost on a train.
Great minds think alike, don't they?

The Unemployment Paradox - Why smart people can't get jobs

5/1/2016

1. The low-intelligence employer hires low-intelligence employees.

2. The middle-intelligence employer hires middle-intelligence employees.

3. The high-intelligence employer hires employees more intelligent than himself and that is why Carnegie’s tombstone reads, “Here lies a man who knew how to enlist the service of better men than himself.”

4. The most intelligent employer is the one who is so intelligent that he manages to run his business using low-intelligence employees.

5. The most intelligent employer is of low intelligence (follows from statements 4 and 1).

6. All employers are of low intelligence (follows from statement 5).

7. The curse of the person of high intelligence is to stay unemployed as there is no one to hire him (follows from statements 6 and 1).

Turing test

3/9/2016

Opaque Forest Problem

3/3/2016

There is a popular math book called “Cows in the Maze”, written by the British mathematician Ian Stewart. Stewart devoted Chapter 2 of the book to the Opaque Forest Problem. The problem can be summarized in the following manner:

You have inherited a plot of land and want to build a fence so that no neighbors’ "evil eyes" can pass across the plot. You want to minimize the cost of the fence by minimizing its length. How can you do that?

The above is an open mathematical problem. A simple solution will be to approach the problem traditionally and build a fence on every edge of your plot, but it is too costly. On page 21, Fig. 5b of his book Stewart claims to provide the best current solution for the regular pentagon case (see my Fig. 1 below, having in mind that the edges of the pentagon are of unit length and the green lines form the so called Steiner tree for the three top vertices of the pentagon).

Fig. 1

Unfortunately, Stewart’s solution is far from the optimal, but with Fig. 2 below I’ll demonstrate how some creative thinking leads to gradual improvements and a much better solution. Calculations are needless as every successive solution is obviously an improvement on the previous one.

Fig. 2

Fright

2/16/2016

McDonald’s Theory of War

12/30/2015

They say there has never been a war between countries that host McDonald’s restaurants. What is harder to realize is that McDonald’s restaurants, so full of people and so unprotected, have never been attacked by terrorists.

I do not know any terrorists and do not attempt to analyze their psychology, but nevertheless think the explanation is obvious. The terrorists do not have issues with democracy, market economy and their 'child' called McDonald’s. The terrorists probably have issues with the fact that the democracy and the market economy often visit their countries and homes uninvited (which McDonald's does not).

Daniel Kahneman’s Theory of Success

12/29/2015

The shortest Theory of Success was formulated by Daniel Kahneman. It only consists of two equalities:
success = talent + luck
great success = a little more talent + a lot of luck

To illustrate Kahneman’s theory let us compare the fate of his with the fate of his friend and collaborator Amos Tversky. They worked and made important discoveries together but it was only Kahneman who became a Nobel prize winner. Tversky did not have the (lot of) luck to live long enough.

The Future

12/27/2015

Our inability to foresee the future does not imply that every imaginable future is possible.

Pythagorean triples of triangular numbers

11/25/2015

The triple (8778, 10296, 13530) is the only known Pythagorean triple consisting of triangular numbers. If another such triple exists, then its hypotenuse has to be greater than 17680431.

Head of the family

10/14/2015

In a democratic family everyone may suggest the color of the curtains, but the one who makes the decision is the head of the family. Mathematics and politics are just like a family. The former proves how many colors are needed to color the world map, but it is the latter who decides which are the right colors.

В демократичното семейство всеки може да даде предложение за цвета на пердетата, но този, който определя цвета, е главата на семейството. Математиката и политиката са досущ като семейство. Едната доказва с колко цвята може да се оцвети политическата карта на света, но другата определя кои точно да са цветовете.

Fractal

9/28/2015

The pessimist sees a glass that is half empty. The оptimist sees a glass that is half full. The clever one sees fools arguing about a glass. The enlightened one sees a fool looking at a fool looking at fools arguing about a glass.

Песимистът вижда наполовина празна чаша. Оптимистът вижда наполовина пълна чаша. Умникът вижда глупци, спорещи за чаша. Мъдрецът вижда глупец, гледащ глупец, гледащ глупци спорещи за чаша.

Order and disorder

9/8/2015

According to Margaret Wertheim, people look to the order of numbers when the world falls apart. Now I know why number theory is the oldest branch of mathematics.

Според Margaret Wertheim, хората търсят ред в числата когато светът се разпада. Сега ми става ясно защо теорията на числата е най-древният клон на математиката.

Fun with numbers

8/30/2015

While playing with numbers I found a funny little thing that must have been found for the first time millennia ago. Starting from the natural number n, take 2n-1 consecutive numbers and add them. The sum equals (2n-1)^2. In other words,
(3n-2)(3n-1)/2 – (n-1)n/2 = (2n-1)^2.

Играейки си с числа открих една дреболия, която подозирам че е била открита за пръв път преди хилядoлетия. Започвайки с естественото число n, вземете 2n-1 последователни естествени числа и ги съберете. Сумата им е равна на (2n-1)^2. С други думи, (3n-2)(3n-1)/2 – (n-1)n/2 = (2n-1)^2.

People and Numbers

7/6/2015

People are like numbers. Most of them are irrational, which makes them think they are normal.

Sandwiches

6/23/2015

According to Douglas Hofstadter everything of the form A-B-A is a sandwich. A good example is the name EIN-ST-EIN. Hofstadter's definition and example do hide as much as they reveal. I'd try to give a better definition: Everything of the form AB-C-AB or AB-C-BA is a sandwich. This broader definition treats palindromes as sandwiches, therefore both KA-Y-AK and ST-UPIDE-ST count as sandwiches.

Q: Besides the trivial cases of: a) the palindromes and b) the one-letter sandwich words (such as E-LIT-E), are there other sandwich words in English?

A: There are 203 other sandwich words of the form AB-C-AB, such as AL-CHEMIC-AL and TE-AMMA-TE. There are 566 other sandwich words of the form AB-C-BA, such as AN-TEN-NA and REV-OL-VER. I even found a sandwich word that is not in my dictionary: RET-ROFIT-TER.

Pancake nightmare

6/17/2015

How do we cut 9 equal pancakes into 10 equal-area portions so that the total length of the cuts is minimal? Note: It is not allowed to make a tower (towers) of pancakes.

Как да нарежем 9 еднакви палачинки на 10 равни по площ порции, така че общата дължина на разрезите да е минимална? Забележка: Не е разрешено палачинките да се нареждат на кула (кули).

The secret of good taste

6/13/2015

Everyone presses buttons every day. You may think that by pressing the right buttons such as Like and +1 skillfully (i.e. where and when needed) you present yourself as a person of good taste, but the truly good taste is to create something that is valued by the people of good taste. You are what you create, not what you press.