Unsolved vs unsolvable math problems
Jan. 10th, 2023 09:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ionelvI was listening to the Hidden Brain podcast on NPR, particularly the You, but better episode and Katy Milkman (while promoting her 2021 book How To Change; see summary) told a little story told about George Dantzig's famous "homework" (stats) problems. KM made the mistake to say unsolvable instead of unsolved (yuge difference):
This brought up two thoughts:
1. We fail by making small mistakes that compound over time (e.g. religion, oral traditions, language evolution, growing bureaucracies, common law, survival bias, compound interest, ignored externalities, genetic abnormalities).
2. How much can I trust Milkman given such a basic and egregious error? Here is a summary of her 2021 book that is available on Toby Sinclair's website:
What's so fascinating about this is that those were two unsolvable problems that had been written on the board. So, his professor discovers that George Dantzig has actually solved these unsolvable problems and comes rushing, and he tells him, "Oh my goodness, do you know what you've done?" Believing these were just his regular homework problems is a big part of what helped George solve them. He didn't treat them any differently. He expected to find a solution. He persisted until he did. If he had thought they were unsolvable problems, he might not ever have attempted them and never have had the success.
This brought up two thoughts:
1. We fail by making small mistakes that compound over time (e.g. religion, oral traditions, language evolution, growing bureaucracies, common law, survival bias, compound interest, ignored externalities, genetic abnormalities).
2. How much can I trust Milkman given such a basic and egregious error? Here is a summary of her 2021 book that is available on Toby Sinclair's website:
