Re: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] the Rearrangement Inequality - Peace, goodwill, and harmony.

["Christian M. Cepel" <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

I'm not trying to be a smart-alec here, but the contrast of it really 
struck me as cool to see Mike and Stephen in strong agreement and 
bolstering each other in this conversation.

I know for myself that Mike and I have had some cool conversation 
off-list and that he's an interesting guy.  Same with Stephen.

I guess religion is just always going to be the source of contention.

Mike Miller wrote:
> On Wed, 2 Aug 2006, Stephen Montgomery-Smith wrote:
>
> > Mike Miller wrote:
> > > On Wed, 2 Aug 2006, Stephen Montgomery-Smith wrote:
> > >
> > > > I will briefly say that I thought that "Good Will Hunting" was a 
> > > > really trashy movie.
> > >
> > >
> > > It was ridiculous.  They had to make the guy unbelievably, 
> > > ridiculously smart, which made it silly.
> >
> > I think that such people who are that unbelievably, ridiculously 
> > smart really do exist.  Ramanujan, from India, is one such example, 
> > as is Mozart in the field of music.
>
> Not quite that smart.  The guy in Good Will Hunting could think 
> circles around the Fields winner he was working with despite an almost 
> complete lack of training.  But to make it truly absurd, they made him 
> an expert in many other areas, such as history.  The really 
> astonishing people like Mozart or Ramanujan are very specialized in 
> their skills and they are obsessive hard workers.  Ramanujan's wife 
> had to put bread in his hand and raise it to his mouth to get him to 
> eat -- he was that transfixed with his work.
>
>
> > Where the movie really fell flat is that such people are also 
> > terribly hard working and obsessed about mathematics or music or 
> > whatever.
>
> We definitely agree about that because I wrote the paragraph above 
> before I read that sentence!
>
>
> > The idea that they casually do great things while living otherwise 
> > normal second rate lives is what is ridiculous.  I can see that a 
> > caretaker might really be a genius, but he would typically have a 
> > really nerdy, almost autistic, personality, and when he goes home, he 
> > would read books rather than going to bars and picking up girls.
>
> Definitely.  And he probably would read books about one narrow topic 
> and he would know more than almost anyone else about that one thing.
>
> I remember reading a few years ago about a poor country boy, probably 
> from Appalachia, who astounded professors at top universities with his 
> knowledge of history.  He had not gone to college, but starting at a 
> young age he read all that he could about history and memorized a 
> gazillion facts.  I think he got into an Ivy League school after that, 
> but my memory is hazy.  I don't know if the kid could do math or 
> science at all well and I don't know if he was a good writer, but 
> maybe some college education would help.
>
> Mike
>
> _______________________________________________
> discussion mailing list
> EMAIL:PROTECTED
> http://mlug.missouri.edu/mailman/listinfo/discussion

_______________________________________________
discussion mailing list
EMAIL:PROTECTED
http://mlug.missouri.edu/mailman/listinfo/discussion