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tricks, discoveries and such...

192.124.182.194

Posted by gnat on May 16, 2000 at 23:40:20

In Reply to: since you brought it up posted by caa on May 14, 2000 at 22:24:59:

Hi, caa

>>>
I thought Good Will Hunting -- while a good film all around -- fails
to be convincing in portraying a genius (IMHO). First, they seem to
say that mathematical discoveries are carried out by simple tricks,
as opposed to conceptual breakthoughs.
<<<

Alot depends on mathematical (or practical) value of such "simple tricks".
Take for example FFT, Fast Fourier Transform. Can it be considered as
some "conceptual breakthough"? Hmm, basically it's nothing more than
a trick. Take a well-known DFT, Discrete FT formula and apply some smart
grouping of sum members, that's all. Not a discovery in some strict sence,
maybe. But it made a whole class of algorithms practically computable.
And the result was an EXPLOSION of useful applications. Fourier was
genius, no doubt. But how about these guys, Cooley and Tukey who invented
(re-invented after Gauss, IIRC) FFT? Hmmmm... I don't think so. But when
I look at all the mess started by FFT I just say woooow!

>>>
Second, the genius, portrayed by Matt Deamon, was *too* cool to be a genius:
his mathematical discoveries don't impress himself that much. Hawking himself
said even a simple but clever discovery can be as good as sex, only lasting
longer. Of course, sex is not Hawking's field of expertise, but it shows that
many movies fail to do a comprehensive research on its subject matter.
<<<

I'm not a genius and not an expert in sex either. But I made a few good
math tricks in my life. And in my experience that "after-trick" feeling
depends mostly on the context. When I realise the value of the trick
*immediately*, then YES, it's as good as sex! Even if later this trick
turns out to be NOT so valuable. :) Sometimes though the trick *value*
isn't as apparent at first glance. Like, umm, this, "yeah, it's all good
and well, but it's just a cheap trick, nothing more". It happens later
when me or someone else says "wow, well done buddy". And in this case
it's not so errr... sexy IME.

I mean it's not impossible for Will to stay cool about some of his math
results. "It's just a trick, some kind of routine, almost obvious optimisation,
so what?" It's professor who puts it into broader context ("invisible" at this
moment for Will btw) and says wow. So this aspect of movie passed a reality
check successfully for me.

redards, gnat

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