I’m sure pirates knew the answer. Probably fighter pilots as well.

  • Melatonin@lemmy.dbzer0.comOP
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    9 months ago

    Very cool. I love that it exists, I love humanity that some of us are capable of understanding, or even generating such things, but wow. Some people are a lot smarter than me.

    • Artisian@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      If it’s any consolation, you are almost certainly within ~3 years of understanding the solution and a dozen variants. It’s not a super deep area. Probably doesn’t really require calculus (you need continuous as in ‘the lion doesn’t teleport; that’s cheating’, but I think not much more).

      • Melatonin@lemmy.dbzer0.comOP
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        8 months ago

        We must always consider capability. If it requires 3 quarts of understanding and I’ve only got a 1/2 gallon container, it’s not all getting in there.

        We aren’t all the same. I am content that there are people way smarter than me. I’ve met some. They’re usually cool.

        • Artisian@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          Fortunately containers can get bigger =)

          While we aren’t all the same, there’s a difference between things that require holding 8 complicated things in mind at once, and things that require a little language learning and the intelligence to solve a crossword. This is closer to the latter - like doing a crossword in Spanish. You need to know a bunch of little things, but learning them is basically all tedium and not brilliant insights. (Taking these puzzles, creating a dozen new variants, and solving all of those probably does require managing a lot of complexity. But to understand the work of others, is not so bad)

          • Melatonin@lemmy.dbzer0.comOP
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            8 months ago

            Agreed. I think “Flowers for Algernon” hit me hard. And I had an experience in college where I accidentally took a philosophy class called “Critical Theory Since Plato” when I first realized that I’m not very smart, just a little above average, and some people live life on a while different level than I do.

            And don’t get me started on “Electromechanical Wave Theory,” a book I bought from Goodwill. I wanted to learn more about that, but I think it was written by aliens.