Round Up #11

Money Quotes From . . .  

• The Future Needs an Attitude Adjustment
• Zeno's Laughter by JMG 
• Wallace's "David Lynch Keeps His Head"

Aphorisms/Shorts

Privilege is too often confused for competence, even when you adjust for the fact that competence over the long run can lead to privileges.

. . .even IF I grant (for arguments sake) that competence is necessary for privilege in modern society, it is not sufficient.

Kids love to see themselves.  They are such narcissists.  But, then, they should want to see themselves.  That is the illusion that makes life, along with identity and the powerful play, even possible.

"Con-men are probably smarter than their marks. But that doesn’t justify fraud."  Source. I find this to be a very elegant way to wrap up many IQ debates.

Interesting is easier to hack than beautiful.  Hence, prioritize the beautiful over the interesting . . . especially in interesting times.

An e Day Offering

Statement of actionability: if you want to memorize 100 digits of e, particularly using the major memory system, this is completely actionable to you.


I've seen estimates of the number of atoms in the universe at to the . . . somewhere in the 80th power.  The highest one I've seen in 82nd.  So, I have no problem capping the number I memorize of both e and pi at 100.  In the case of pi, I don't think I'll need a circle the size of the known universe, and more accurate than the last atom.  With e, I just don't think I'll ever be benefiting from a continual compounding of interest that has me owning every atom in the universe either.


e
2.718281828459045235360287471352662497757247093699959574966967627724076630353547594571382178525166427  4

If you have some experience memorizing things with a system using visuals, you can probably skip this next paragraph, which is only meant to give context, and perhaps to set the mood.

Imagine a young man named Nick, from the wrong side of tracks.  He longs for a girl, named here the diva forevermore.  But it's not meant to be, so pulls a knife on a young child named Dave, we presume to get a ransom -- it is not stated within the first digits of e.  He is not altogether kind in his treatment to Dave, but he is arrested, and feels crushed by the legal system.  He dies in jail, and through an act of grace makes it to heaven, ready to start a new life.  

Using the Major Memory System, that makes for the following:

1. Nick looked at one last time at the diva  2718
2.  and took a knife to Dave,    2818
3. who is a nephew of a royal. 2845
4. He threw the booze over the rail.  9045  
5. Yelling to his enemies that he was going on the lamb. 2353
6. Bits of cheese were still visible on the knife 6028
7. "Come to the car, kid" he said  7471
8.  with a smile and a nudge. 3526
9.  He then grabbed his chin and got a rope 6249
10.  made a gag and drove toward the lake 7757
11.  going on a narrow that passed some cows 2470
12.  His escaping depending on either a bomb or a ship. 9369
13.  Like a baby his lip trembled. 9959
14.  When upon reaching the lake he was hit in the rib 5749
15.  The judge looked boyish 6696
16.  and had just the cage for Nick 7627
17.  who thought about his queen, his rose  7240
18.  and about his gash . . . and more so his shame 7663
19.  He was like sumo who was lame 0353
20.  His lawyer, of course, had no clue 5475
21.  He was poor, so he had no luck 9457
22.  And went to his tomb, and then to heaven 1382
23.  Where he saw his dog, who did not notice his past folly. 1785
24.  Running like the Nile, he grabbed a tissue 2516
25.  It was a new shore for Nick   6427

I like how our story starts with Nick and ends with Nick.  It starts with him somewhat sympathetic, goes to a dark place, but leads to redemption.

If you wanted a hundred decimal places after the "two", instead of 100 digits of e including the "two", the next digit is 4.  You could use the line "This is what he had waited for."  I just remember, "oh, yeah, put a 4."