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.
Mathematics is the study of analogies between analogies. All science is. Scientists want to show that things that don't look alike are really the sam… - Gian-Carlo Rota
Mathematics is the study of analogies between analogies. All science is. Scientists want to show that things that don't look alike are really the sam…
- Gian-Carlo Rota
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 o… - Gian-Carlo Rota
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 o…
Mathematicians also make terrible salesmen. Physicists can discover the same thing as a mathematician and say 'We've discovered a great new law of na… - Gian-Carlo Rota
Mathematicians also make terrible salesmen. Physicists can discover the same thing as a mathematician and say 'We've discovered a great new law of na…
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 slowl… - Gian-Carlo Rota
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 slowl…
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 … - Gian-Carlo Rota
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 …
Nature imitates mathematics. - Gian-Carlo Rota
Nature imitates mathematics.
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 … - Gian-Carlo Rota
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 …
The lack of real contact between mathematics and biology is either a tragedy, a scandal or a challenge, it is hard to decide which. - Gian-Carlo Rota
The lack of real contact between mathematics and biology is either a tragedy, a scandal or a challenge, it is hard to decide which.
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… - Gian-Carlo Rota
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…
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