Week #7

Many of you are not bothering to 'vote' in the weekly survey. Please, I'm interested in what you're thinking. As Al Capone once said: "Remember to vote early -- and often." That's supposed to be a joke, but I also want to remind everyone that these are not scientific studies.

We lost last Monday to the legendary Columbus, and I am hopeful that many of you took a closer look at the holiday link in Week #6's post. The story I was told in school was a lot different, but I guess, like most stories told, they're slanted towards benevolence. As my mother once said (I'm sure your's did too): "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all."

Here's a short list of quotes to ponder:

"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity." -- Hanlon

"Misunderstandings and neglect occasion more mischief in the world than even malice and wickedness. At all events, the two latter are of less frequent occurrence." -- Goethe

"You have attributed conditions to villainy that simply result from stupidity" -- Heinlein

Well, I'd also like to believe that the disagreement between Briton and Germany (Newton vs. Leibniz) is an example of national stupidity and not individual malice. Anyway, the madness finally ended, and we're now able to take derivatives of many functions without having to worry about national pride.

Next week we'll move forward, specifically the Chain Rule and Implicit Differentiation. I'd like to think that all this work in finding derivatives will have a payoff, and for me I will use the derivatives as currency to buy information. Like any currency, I need to spend it quickly, for tomorrow it's value may be lost. So yes, we need to find derivatives and then use them quickly, otherwise we may acquire a lot of wealth, but know little of its value.