Friday, December 02, 2005
Today in math we talked about something called a "least squares solution," and it sounded to me like some sort of Hipster Hitler's plan for purifying the population.
Maybe we could call him Hipler, i thought, or maybe even Hipstler. Hipler is easier to say, but there's something about that Hipstler. If Hipstler was the bonus round word on Wheel of Fortune, it would be the kind of word where they give you most of the letters right away but you'd still have trouble guessing what it was. I guess it wouldn't help that it's not a real word.
When i drink coffee before math class, something wonderful happens. Made-up war criminals aside, some sort of channel is opened in my brain, and all the mathematical ideas make perfect sense and somehow appeal to some kind of aesthetic sensibility in me. I sit there all hour going "Wow, yeah, that... that's brilliant!" Like the theorems and relations of numbers to each other are these works of art, almost. I imagine it must be how mathemeticians feel sometimes. It's bizarre that it's coffee doing this to me, because you'd never expect there to be a connection between orthogonality and cinnamon/vanilla/hazelnut.
Maybe we could call him Hipler, i thought, or maybe even Hipstler. Hipler is easier to say, but there's something about that Hipstler. If Hipstler was the bonus round word on Wheel of Fortune, it would be the kind of word where they give you most of the letters right away but you'd still have trouble guessing what it was. I guess it wouldn't help that it's not a real word.
When i drink coffee before math class, something wonderful happens. Made-up war criminals aside, some sort of channel is opened in my brain, and all the mathematical ideas make perfect sense and somehow appeal to some kind of aesthetic sensibility in me. I sit there all hour going "Wow, yeah, that... that's brilliant!" Like the theorems and relations of numbers to each other are these works of art, almost. I imagine it must be how mathemeticians feel sometimes. It's bizarre that it's coffee doing this to me, because you'd never expect there to be a connection between orthogonality and cinnamon/vanilla/hazelnut.
