My Favorite Heinlein Quotes:


BaalChatzaf

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Anyone who cannot cope with mathematics is not fully human. At best he is a tolerable subhuman who has learned to wear shoes, bathe and not make messes in the house.

--Lazarus Long, "Time Enough for Love", (Robert A. Heinlein)

(Are you reading this Dr. Peikoff?).

TANSTAAFL -- There ain't no such thing as a free lunch.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TANSTAAFL

Ba'al Chatzaf

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Anyone who cannot cope with mathematics is not fully human. At best he is a tolerable subhuman who has learned to wear shoes, bathe and not make messes in the house.

--Lazarus Long, "Time Enough for Love", (Robert A. Heinlein)

(Are you reading this Dr. Peikoff?).

TANSTAAFL -- There ain't no such thing as a free lunch.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TANSTAAFL

Ba'al Chatzaf

Aren't there some math guys who haven't "learned to wear shoes, bathe and not make messes in the house"? :)

--Brant

Edited by Brant Gaede
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  • 1 month later...

"If tempted by something that feels "altruistic," examine your motives and root out that self-deception. Then, if you still want to do it, wallow in it!"

"Never underestimate the power of human stupidity."

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Bob,

In the first quote. Did he consider logic as mathematics or was he just talking about numerical mathematics.

--Dustan

In -Starship Troopers- RAH referred to symbolic or formalized logic as a mathematical subject. I think RAH intended that the inability to think abstractly renders one subhuman. RAH did not suffer fools or sloppy thinkers gladly. My kind of guy!

Ba'al Chatzaf

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Ba'al, this is one of my favorite Heinlein quotes. As someone who had an easier time in humanities courses in high school and college and struggled mightily through to an M.S. in Chemical Engineering, I can say that the beauty, efficacy and wonder opened up by the world of mathematics is well worth the effort.

Douglas Hofstadter has said that his retort when someone tells him they are not a math person is: yes and I cannot read :-).

Jim

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