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There are two ways to solve a math problem and you described one of them: hit the nut with a hammer as hard as you can until it breaks. Grothendieck preferred t
by kkwteh 6y ago
There are two ways to solve a math problem and you described one of them: hit the nut with a hammer as hard as you can until it breaks. Grothendieck preferred the second method of slowly raising the ocean and soaking the nut for a few years, until one day it opens all by itself.
- jan_Inkepa 6y agoHomeopathic approaches can feel just as arbitrary, though. “How did the mathematician know to take a bazillion tiny steps to get here?”, “Which steps in this process are the ones that do anything?”, and “Why can’t they just get to the point?!” are all questions one might ask oneself while in the midst of reading such material.