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"It is straightforward to show that..." means that you could probably do it with your current knowledge, but it will take 6 dense pages, four false starts and a
by Ma8ee 7y ago
"It is straightforward to show that..." means that you could probably do it with your current knowledge, but it will take 6 dense pages, four false starts and about a week of focused work.
- bitwize 7y agoI used to joke that when a solution was known to exist the problem was "trivial"; when a solution was not known to exist it was "nontrivial". A problem that's bloody well impossible is "decidedly nontrivial".
- andreareina 7y agoIf you were Feynman you'd even call it "elementary" https://mavenroundtable.io/originalpath/path-helpers/feynman-s-lost-lecture-W1juMFAHE0ycVFiybjO8KA/ https://mavenroundtable.io/originalpath/path-helpers/feynman...
- hinkley 7y ago'You' being personified here, rather than the general you. Straightforward tends to suggest we don't have to have a bunch of meetings about it, because the right person either has the knowledge or we know precisely where to get it.
- Ma8ee 7y agoIt depends on the context. I had the math professor lecturing her students in mind.
- MaxBarraclough 7y agoLike the joke about writing math textbooks. Forgotten the proof? Not a problem. The proof of this is elementary and is left as an exercise for the reader.