tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722233.post784577159994112394..comments2024-03-27T19:58:17.387-05:00Comments on Computational Complexity: What inspired you to work on... whatever you work on?Lance Fortnowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06752030912874378610noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722233.post-61784387197406125422011-08-30T16:59:55.577-05:002011-08-30T16:59:55.577-05:00RE 14: I have been told (I don't remember the ...RE 14: I have been told (I don't remember the events myself) that when I was 4 or 5, my mom gave me a mobius strip, made out of the strip of paper that binds silverware together at restaurants (the end was sticky, so apparently it made it easy to make).<br /><br />She gave me a red crayon and a blue crayon, and told me to color each side of the mobius strip a different color. So I started on the red side, then I flipped it over and started coloring blue. Eventually, the two colors touched, and I started crying!<br /><br />P.S. My senior year of high school, a take-home final exam in Calculus had a problem that involved computing a line integral over a mobius strip (or something like that). I think I cried then too.Daniel Aponnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722233.post-43659552719761523282011-08-25T07:59:48.989-05:002011-08-25T07:59:48.989-05:00I hadn't found a suitable thesis topic yet and...I hadn't found a suitable thesis topic yet and one day my adviser was explaining the Sperner Triangle to me. I casually mentioned, "I bet we could make a nice game out of this." He stopped talking, turned to me and said: "That is what you're doing now." Awesome! We created the game and found its complexity. Five years later, I'm still doing this sort of thing!Kylehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02448231492905040705noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722233.post-6920633737665434632011-08-25T02:22:32.728-05:002011-08-25T02:22:32.728-05:00Sometimes I get good ideas for papers from questio...Sometimes I get good ideas for papers from questions students ask in the class or audience asks in a lecture. <br /><br />In general, new ideas usually come from interacting with others, not from locking yourself up in your room. <br /><br />To put it simply, 2 researchers talking and sharing ideas with each other are 10 times better and more efficient than 10 researchers who don't talk to each other.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722233.post-15887069518264105752011-08-25T02:21:11.647-05:002011-08-25T02:21:11.647-05:00I was initially wanting to go to Grad School to st...I was initially wanting to go to Grad School to study compilers and programming languages, when I was an undergrad. However, once I read Richard Karp's interview and article in CACM after he won the Turing Award, I was sold on studying algorithms, and doing things more along the lines of coming up with fast polynomial algorithms. It was random coincidence. I picked up the issue of CACM on the way to the train station from the mailroom, and since I did not want to walk up 3 flights of stairs to drop it back in my room, I took it along with me.....a few hours later I had my calling.samirhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12398855828681012949noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722233.post-23343417383788957172011-08-24T13:45:31.030-05:002011-08-24T13:45:31.030-05:00I'm a High School student working with dr. gas...I'm a High School student working with dr. gasarch. I think hypergraph ramsey is cool because he taught me it's cool.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722233.post-76780786754864959472011-08-24T12:39:48.257-05:002011-08-24T12:39:48.257-05:00Inspiration (for me) comes concretely from the cas...Inspiration (for me) comes concretely from the case histories of individual patients … whenever the surgeon begins to sweat, and especially whenever the patient's outcome is adverse … there is a research opportunity.<br /><br />Abstractly, inspiration comes (for me) from the broader study of history and the STEM literature … which (for me) is simply an abstracted naturalized and universalized description of individual human-scale case histories.<br /><br />This practical point-of-view provides a concrete framework for appreciating a perennial topic on <i>Shtetl Optimized</i>; the perennial topic being “The Fate of Humanity,” and the concrete framework being an appreciation that incremental STEM research (pursued by individuals) is <a href="http://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=748#comment-26916" rel="nofollow">cumulatively determinative</a> of that fate.<br /><br />So yes, what I do makes a difference; and yes, what <i>you</i> do makes a difference … and that's why we need none of us ever lack for inspiration and motivation … because we are blessed with sources of inspiration all around us.<br /><br />Best … century … EVER! :)John Sidleshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16286860374431298556noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722233.post-89358702204396583412011-08-24T10:06:27.647-05:002011-08-24T10:06:27.647-05:00To make a long story as short as possible, my adve...To make a long story as short as possible, my adventures with the Four Color Conjecture began in Feb. 1980 when Martin Gardner discussed the Haken-Appel proof in his regular column in “Scientific American”.<br /><br />At the time I had developed a keen interest in the Philosophy of Science and I rephrased the problem in terms of a Metaphysical Question:<br /><br />How does the average human computer four-color maps so efficiently?<br /><br />Within a year or so I had developed the notion of Non-Gaussian Coordinate Systems and a bag of tricks for generating heuristic algorithms that appeared to work quite well when tested empirically.<br /><br />I then composed the “Eight Coloring Riddle” thinking Mr. Gardner might find it amusing and wrapped it around one of my more reliable mono-pole algorithms. For reasons too numerous to name, I never sent it and put it in the “Worry About It Later” file where it collected dust for a couple of decades.<br /> <br />In 2008 after retiring from my day job, my brother gave me a couple of Robin Wilson’s “Four Colors Suffice” for my birthday. The cover of the edition he gave me was decorated with the Birkoff Diamond and one of the four regions was named “Blair”.<br /><br />I was ready to dismiss it as a curious convergence of coincidences when I learned that Martin Gardner had died and I couldn’t shake the feeling that I should have sent him the riddle.<br /><br />Dick Lipton somehow reminds me of Martin Gardner so I posted the riddle on his “Godel’s Lost Letter” blog without adding the heuristic monopole reduction. <br /><br />There are a lot of variations of the basic eight-coloring procedure which might work and currently the more compelling ones seem to involve using numerous poles.Jim Blairnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722233.post-26417308828725038312011-08-23T21:00:42.979-05:002011-08-23T21:00:42.979-05:00I work on what I work on BECAUSE I CANI work on what I work on BECAUSE I CANAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722233.post-4514565461371180312011-08-23T13:01:09.701-05:002011-08-23T13:01:09.701-05:001) Not quite random- but I wanted to illustrate
(a...1) Not quite random- but I wanted to illustrate<br />(a) seeing a talk, (b) reading something,<br />(c) talking to people. There are other stories<br />that are AS significant for me but either the stories aren't quite as clear cut, or they are<br />repetitive, or the connection of them to the work I did was more tenous.<br /><br />2) But never mind me, I want YOU, the readers, to tell your stories! What inspired you- <br />AWESOME teachers, AWESOME papers. Even not-so-awesome things can inspire you.GASARCHhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06134382469361359081noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722233.post-23864317246310736872011-08-23T12:25:10.916-05:002011-08-23T12:25:10.916-05:00are the items in this list more or less random or ...are the items in this list more or less random or are they about the 15 most significant items of this list? just trying to understand how your mind works.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722233.post-6239221261312935662011-08-23T11:33:30.633-05:002011-08-23T11:33:30.633-05:00What a fantastic kindergarten teacher!What a fantastic kindergarten teacher!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722233.post-14954773641179613602011-08-23T10:39:43.765-05:002011-08-23T10:39:43.765-05:00Wouldn't it be great if all elementary school ...Wouldn't it be great if all elementary school teachers had PhDs in mathematics. Great post!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722233.post-84146599124498520172011-08-23T10:38:55.345-05:002011-08-23T10:38:55.345-05:0014: awesome story
15: awesome teacher14: awesome story<br />15: awesome teacherGeoff Knauthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12025560607512616605noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722233.post-92018225661934749532011-08-23T10:21:50.966-05:002011-08-23T10:21:50.966-05:00The best way out is when a graduate student enters...The best way out is when a graduate student enters a graduate programme with several problems in mind!<br /><br />There is something fundamentally wrong about giving tips on how a graduate student is supposed to fish for problems! It simply is against the spirit of science!Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02606530941129434226noreply@blogger.com