PBS has published an interview with dr. John Nash of Princeton University. John Nash received a Nobel prize in economics in 1994 for pioneering the equilibrium analysis of non-cooperative games. The interview can be read and seen as a video here.
On Discovering Math
"I was in grade school. I would be doing arithmetic, and I found myself working with larger numbers than other students would be using. I would have several digits, and they would have maybe two or three digits. I would do multiplication and basic operation, but with larger numbers. Later on in adolescence, I got some practice in using a calculator machine, where you could multiply and add, subtract and divide really large numbers like 10 digits."
John Nash
I appreciate Mr. Nash for looking where no one else thought to look and continuing in a line of thinking which is right under our noses but taken for granted. He was able to say in one way or another, "I'll reach through all the smoke and mirrors of behavior and spell it out in black and white one simple action." Few people can get over the hump of disregarding the obvious.
ReplyDeleteDavid Peace