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I knew I'd heard recently about someone brilliant who had obsessed over bus tickets. Thanks for helping me recall it. A recent episode of Radiolab, dated Augus
by grappler 7y ago
I knew I'd heard recently about someone brilliant who had obsessed over bus tickets. Thanks for helping me recall it.
A recent episode of Radiolab, dated August 27, 2019, introduced a large audience (including me) to another podcast, The Memory Palace:
https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/memory-palace https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/memor...
With that strong endorsement I began going through the whole back-catalog of The Memory Palace, and Episode 36, dated January 7, 2011, “six scenes from the life of william james sidis, wonderful boy”, talks about Sidis' obsession with bus tickets. Or maybe more precisely, streetcar transfers.
http://thememorypalace.us/2011/01/six-scenes-in-the-life-of-william-james-sidis-wonderful-boy/ http://thememorypalace.us/2011/01/six-scenes-in-the-life-of-...
I think it said he figured out ways to traverse great distances on a single fare by connecting transfers. That kind of graph traversal thinking strikes me as ahead of its time for the age of streetcars, and could plausibly have led to some interesting places.
- jfengel 7y agoGlad to hear it. The Memory Palace is one of the most interesting podcasts on my (extensive) list. It's beautifully produced and wonderfully idiosyncratic in its choice of subjects.
- klik99 7y agoI've been fascinated by Sidis in the past, yet never really got his transfer ticket fascination. Maybe because I've been steeped in graph theory for the last couple of years but listening to that episode made me realize the beauty of what he saw. If this written/possible (is it?) today, no doubt we'd have web pages and youtube channels devoted to "Transfer Surfing". And I've got a new podcast to listen to!