Random Cerebrations

Not just speechify

2008-06-06T09:30:00.004-04:00

Found this quote in a book I bought recently, and loved it. Seems you can easily replace math with programming and still be correct :)

People do acquire a little brief authority by equipping themselves with jargon: they can pontificate and air a superficial expertise. But what we should ask of educated mathematicians is not what they can speechify about, nor even what they know about the existing corpus of mathematical knowledge, but rather what can they do with their learning and whether they can actually solve mathematical problems arising in practice. In short, we look for deeds not words. -- J. Hammersley

The journey, not the destination...

2007-11-19T12:45:00.001-05:00

I'm sure you've heard people say that the journey is most times more important than the destination. Have you ever taken a dead-end road on purpose? Did you take it knowing that it was a dead-en? Did you do it because of the journey? I can already hear the "oh, but you should take the one that is NOT an obvious dead-end AND seems like a worthy journey"... :) Come on, someone amuse me.

Meaninful vs. Long

2007-09-21T14:23:00.000-04:00

Seems that most parents and people who care about you would not like to see you trade a long life for a more personally fulfilling life. They'd like to have you around for long, first and foremost, as long as the physical quality of life is not too bad. Wonder how it would be if we wore our insides as coats...

Who am I?

2007-09-17T12:42:00.000-04:00

We seldom are who others think us to be. It seems to me that most of the time we are not even who we think we are.

On the common use of "to be"

2007-08-08T11:21:00.001-04:00

Here is another short one. It is along the same lines as the previous post. About how we phrase things some times. The one for today is on the use of the verb "be".

Have you noticed how easy it is to argue with most when they say "That movie _is_ good." I like come back with something like: "No, it _is_ not!" And round, and round you go. Notice how much more difficult it seems to be to argue against "I thought that movie was great!" Do you see the point I'm trying to make?

I hear opinions being phrased as facts every day! You might be thinking: "Come on dude, just do the conversion in your head." And I do. The problem starts when you *might* be talking about facts and not just opinions. How can I unequivocally tell them apart if they are being phrased the same way? Context is not always enough for me.

Do you have some examples that you can think of? Conversation with a boss? An employee? A sermon? A friend? A mate?

You *are* ugly. Today *is* hot. The world *is* round :)

What does it take to be able to use the "be" verb correctly? Expertise in the area you are talking about? Facts and data? Reference points? (As in, today *is* hot, as compared to yesterday)

Anyway.

... and another one

2007-05-18T16:39:00.000-04:00

Don't phrase as a command when a suggestion will do.

I had a hard time with the "suggestion", I wanted to use "invitation", or "request". Oh well. Bottom line, I really dislike it when people try to boss me around. I see it even in church! "Sit down!", "Stand up!". Just rubs me the wrong way. I could say much more about this, but I think you get the point.

Quote me...

2007-05-18T16:34:00.000-04:00

Here is an original from moi:

Love will hurt you, but the lack of it will kill you.

Wonder where that one came from :)

Ciao Mondo!

2006-10-04T10:22:00.000-04:00

Nothing more than a brief introduction to this niche in cyberspace.

Given my background, I just had to say: "Hello world!"