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Gian-Carlo Rota

Gian-Carlo Rota Biography

Mathematician

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“THE COMPUTER IS JUST AN INSTRUMENT for doing faster what we already know how to do slower. All pretensions to computer intelligence and paradise-tomorrow promises should be toned down before the public turns away in disgust. And if that should happen, our civilization might not survive.”

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Book:Discrete Thoughts: Essays on Mathematics, Science and Philosophy
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“Why is it that Serge Lange's Linear Algebra, published by no less a Verlag than Springer, ostentatiously displays the sale of a few thousand copies over a period of fifteen years, while the same title by Seymour Lipschutz in the The Schaum's Outlines will be considered a failure unless it brings in a steady annual income from the sale of a few hundred thousand copies in twenty-six languages?”

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Author:Gian-Carlo Rota
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“Richard Feynman was fond of giving the following advice on how to be a genius. You have to keep a dozen of your favorite problems constantly present in your mind, although by and large they will lay in a dormant state. Every time you hear or read a new trick or a new result, test it against each of your twelve problems to see whether it helps. Every once in a while there will be a hit, and people will say, "How did he do it? He must be a genius!"”

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Author:Gian-Carlo Rota
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“Making mathematics accessible to the educated layman, while keeping high scientific standards, has always been considered a treacherous navigation between the Scylla of professional contempt and the Charybdis of public misunderstanding.”

StandardsMathematicsEducatedContemptMisunderstandingTreacherousNavigationLaymanCharybdisScylla
Book:Discrete Thoughts: Essays on Mathematics, Science and Philosophy
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“Every lecture should state one main point and repeat it over and over, like a theme with variations. An audience is like a herd of cows, moving slowly in the direction they are being driven towards. If we make one point, we have a good chance that the audience will take the right direction; if we make several points, then the cows will scatter all over the field. The audience will lose interest and everyone will go back to the thoughts they interrupted in order to come to our lecture.”

IfsShouldStatesMovingScienceOrderInterestLosesChanceAudienceFieldsDrivenRepeatsThemeCowsLecturesVariationHerdsInterruptedRight DirectionGood ChanceMoving Slowly
Book:Indiscrete Thoughts
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“Combinatorics is an honest subject. No adèles, no sigma-algebras. You count balls in a box, and you either have the right number or you haven't. You get the feeling that the result you have discovered is forever, because it's concrete. Other branches of mathematics are not so clear-cut. Functional analysis of infinite-dimensional spaces is never fully convincing; you don't get a feeling of having done an honest day's work. Don't get the wrong idea - combinatorics is not just putting balls into boxes. Counting finite sets can be a highbrow undertaking, with sophisticated techniques.”

IdeasDoneFeelingsSpaceResultsNumbersForeverClearCuttingSubjectsHonestHavensBallsInfiniteMathematicsBoxesMathTechniqueAnalysisBranchesAdsConcreteSophisticatedFiniteConvincingCountingUndertakingsAlgebraWrong Ideas
Author:Gian-Carlo Rota
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“Every field has its taboos. In algebraic geometry the taboos are (1) writing a draft that can be followed by anyone but two or three of one's closest friends, (2) claiming that a result has applications, (3) mentioning the word 'combinatorial,' and (4) claiming that algebraic geometry existed before Grothendieck (only some handwaving references to 'the Italians' are allowed provided they are not supported by specific references).”

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Author:Gian-Carlo Rota
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