completely out of topic,
I remember sitting in math classes one day and have our teacher explain us the concept of what was labeled in dutch the "mule's bridge".
In long past times when life was "simpler" people used mules as pack animals. A mule however is a very stubborn animal. It would refuse to walk obediently over a bridge. You had to pull and pull to get it to cross the bridge once, but once it crossed the bridge, it would learn that the bridge isn't a threat or dangerous, and simply cross it without resisting the next time it would pass the same bridge, until you got to the next bridge, where you had to start pulling again.
So a "mules bridge" was a short description for confronting your mind with a concept it couldn't understand, and in maths, understanding the concept is the base you need to actually solve any problems based on it and before you can start moving towards the next bridge.
I wonder if anyone else feels like their mind is a very stubborn mule to?
What's the longest time / thing you banged your head against before you moved over the bridge. I remember that for me it was solving differentials and integrals in maths, we had a very demanding but luckily also very motivating teacher who pushed us to explore just what complexity of them we could solve. Medium to high complexity was the norm for every test he made us do. He's also the teacher who spent half the time of his class explaining what wonderful machine his pc was, which is the prime reason why I bang my head against java these days. We had another great teacher who was a known pothead and didn't hide it, he's the reason I stopped solving differentials and Integrals and started chasing girls instead. Whoever said that I was never paying attention in class was dead wrong, I was always in attention, specially when they said something important, like "a kid like you should go out in the fields, chase girls into the hay!" i wish this was still an option heh
I remember sitting in math classes one day and have our teacher explain us the concept of what was labeled in dutch the "mule's bridge".
In long past times when life was "simpler" people used mules as pack animals. A mule however is a very stubborn animal. It would refuse to walk obediently over a bridge. You had to pull and pull to get it to cross the bridge once, but once it crossed the bridge, it would learn that the bridge isn't a threat or dangerous, and simply cross it without resisting the next time it would pass the same bridge, until you got to the next bridge, where you had to start pulling again.
So a "mules bridge" was a short description for confronting your mind with a concept it couldn't understand, and in maths, understanding the concept is the base you need to actually solve any problems based on it and before you can start moving towards the next bridge.
I wonder if anyone else feels like their mind is a very stubborn mule to?
What's the longest time / thing you banged your head against before you moved over the bridge. I remember that for me it was solving differentials and integrals in maths, we had a very demanding but luckily also very motivating teacher who pushed us to explore just what complexity of them we could solve. Medium to high complexity was the norm for every test he made us do. He's also the teacher who spent half the time of his class explaining what wonderful machine his pc was, which is the prime reason why I bang my head against java these days. We had another great teacher who was a known pothead and didn't hide it, he's the reason I stopped solving differentials and Integrals and started chasing girls instead. Whoever said that I was never paying attention in class was dead wrong, I was always in attention, specially when they said something important, like "a kid like you should go out in the fields, chase girls into the hay!" i wish this was still an option heh
