Not related to the article itself - I happened to open Javascript console on the page. Try it yourself - you might find it interesting too : )
John Conway – The world’s most charismatic mathematician
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Re: John Conway – The world’s most charismatic mathematician
#22Wow I don't understand how you can just change your personality in an instant. Maybe he has an easily 're-programmable' brain.
Just do it.
Nothing is stopping you other than your own will.
Re: John Conway – The world’s most charismatic mathematician
#23Numberphile, an awesome youtube channel on its own, has done some great interviews with John Conway that are definitely worth watching: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9Plq-D1gEk , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8kUJL04ELA , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOCe5HUObD4 He really comes across as a genuinely great guy.
Thanks for mentioning those. Here's a single link to the YouTube playlist for the 5 Conway videos on that channel:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLt5AfwLFPxWIL8XA1npoN...
Re: John Conway – The world’s most charismatic mathematician
#24Wow I don't understand how you can just change your personality in an instant. Maybe he has an easily 're-programmable' brain.
Just do it. Nothing is stopping you other than your own will.
And the billions+ of entrenched synapses that compose the sum total of your life to date. You can not just rewire yourself in a heartbeat, and injunctions to "just do it" are as misleading as they are unhelpful.
You may will yourself to act in a different manner, but the will of a moment frequently exhausts itself, leaving the collection of rhythms and habits built into you over the years. Or, to put it differently, we all have an equilibrium, a norm we tends towards in the absence of persistent and sustained external stimuli. Your will is a small stimulus for change, and it works over weeks and months in a series of small nudges.
You can change, in almost any way, but if you "just will yourself to do it", you'll most likely find yourself failing again and again, convinced that if you could only be (somehow) just a bit more stronger-willed, complete change is right around the corner.
Perhaps you mean "Just do it – envision what you wish to become, work out the set of habits necessary to that new person, and slowly rework your present habits, one by one, (removing environmental triggers/cues to old habits, and redirecting their behavioral outcomes), until you've discarded or transformed the old set into the new.
Nothing is stopping you other than [a clear goal, a choice, and steadily repeated applications of] your own will."
Re: John Conway – The world’s most charismatic mathematician
#25> He’s invented many peculiar algorithms—for counting stairs while you climb without actually counting, and for how best to read through a stack of double-sided loose-leaf pages.
Any ideas about how this is done?
Re: John Conway – The world’s most charismatic mathematician
#26I had the chance to meet him in person during a summer school a few years ago. He's simply awesome. Super fun guy, great to talk to and a great teacher (even though sometimes quite a bit disorganised... I remember him leaving behind some of his stuff when he had to catch the taxi that took him to the airport at 6am or so ;) ).
I met him over 30 years ago, a great teacher as you wrote.
Our paths may have crossed, then. I was at DPMMS from 1983 to 1987, spending much time in the "common room". Is that where you met Conway?
Re: John Conway – The world’s most charismatic mathematician
#27> He’s invented many peculiar algorithms—for counting stairs while you climb without actually counting, and for how best to read through a stack of double-sided loose-leaf pages. Any ideas about how this is done?
I was curious as well and googled it ("counting stairs conway") and found this:
http://blog.tanyakhovanova.com/2011/06/a-nerds-way-to-walk-u...
> His invention is simple. Your steps should be in a cycle: short, long, long. Long in this case means a double step. Thus, you will cover five stairs in one short-long-long cycle. In addition, you should always start the first cycle on the same foot. Suppose you start on the left foot, then after two cycles you are back on the left foot, having covered ten stairs. While you are walking the stairs in this way, it is clear where you are in the cycle. By the end of the staircase, you will know the number of stairs modulo ten. Usually there are not a lot of stairs in a staircase, so you can easily estimate the total if you know the last digit of that number.
Re: John Conway – The world’s most charismatic mathematician
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just do it. Nothing is stopping you other than your own will.
And the billions+ of entrenched synapses that compose the sum total of your life to date. You can not just rewire yourself in a heartbeat, and injunctions to "just do it" are as misleading as they are unhelpful. You may will yourself to act in a different manner, but the will of a moment frequently exhausts itself, leaving the collection of rhythms and habits built into you over the years. Or, to put it differently,…
Like I said: just do it.
You're agreeing with me. Yes, it's hard. So what if it's hard? It's a matter of second-by-second choices. Failed? ok, that's in the past. Might fail? ok, that's in the future. You're in the present. Just do it.
Re: John Conway – The world’s most charismatic mathematician
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
I met him over 30 years ago, a great teacher as you wrote.
Our paths may have crossed, then. I was at DPMMS from 1983 to 1987, spending much time in the "common room". Is that where you met Conway?
I met him while I was still at school, 1981 or 1982.
The maths department at my local University (Liverpool) organized meetings for kids from the surrounding region who were reasonably good at the subject, Conway came to one on a trip back to see his parents.
Re: John Conway – The world’s most charismatic mathematician
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
And the billions+ of entrenched synapses that compose the sum total of your life to date. You can not just rewire yourself in a heartbeat, and injunctions to "just do it" are as misleading as they are unhelpful. You may will yourself to act in a different manner, but the will of a moment frequently exhausts itself, leaving the collection of rhythms and habits built into you over the years. Or, to put it differently,…
Like I said: just do it. You're agreeing with me. Yes, it's hard. So what if it's hard? It's a matter of second-by-second choices. Failed? ok, that's in the past. Might fail? ok, that's in the future. You're in the present. Just do it.
Ok I am open minded. Today I will just do it and post back some results :-).
And perhaps I should buy a certain brand of trainers?