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>One day, he proposed proving a special, much simpler case of the conjecture as a homework assignment. As an optional part, he included the original conjecture
by tomjen3 1y ago
>One day, he proposed proving a special, much simpler case of the conjecture as a homework assignment. As an optional part, he included the original conjecture
There is a lesson there: always give people an opportunity to excel, if you can.
- sshine 1y agoI remember at first year of university being presented with a bunch of “simple” problems early on, such as the Collatz conjecture. I remember wanting to spend time trying to explore what a solution might look like, because such simply formulated problems must have equally simple solutions. Maturing and getting a better understanding of my intellectual capacity, I have opted to solve practical problems with a much bigger chance of success and absolutely no groundbreaking qualities. But I liked being taken serious from the start, and I think it’s important to try and solve hard problems before you grow stuck in the real world.
- gopher_space 1y agoI give all of my hard problems to juniors.
- cjensen 1y agoThe best thing about juniors is they don't know a problem is impossible, so they just do it.