Random thoughts

[Metathron]

Mmmkaaaay. You're like, all smart and stuff.

[Kalah]

I'm one of those guys who is given a paper to finish in two weeks, spends twelve days playing computer games and generally larking about, and works his butt off the last two days of the time allotted. Right now I have (in practice) had a year to work on the thesis, but only done about three months' worth of actual work. Well, it's coming along now, I think. I'll hand in about 10 pages to my advisor tomorrow. I mean today. Or... what time is it...?

[PhoenixReborn]

Is happiness manufactured in a bottle?

[Kalah]

Yes, it is.

[Jolly Joker]

I'm one of those guys who is given a paper to finish in two weeks, spends twelve days playing computer games and generally larking about, and works his butt off the last two days of the time allotted. Right now I have (in practice) had a year to work on the thesis, but only done about three months' worth of actual work. Well, it's coming along now, I think. I'll hand in about 10 pages to my advisor tomorrow. I mean today. Or... what time is it...?

Sure sign of the genius, right? It reminds me of this story of the famous mathematician CF Gauss. You know the story, right? To keep the pupils busy in elementary school, Gauss' teacher tasked them with building the sum of all integers from 1 to 100. The 9 year old Gauss allegedly solved the problem in a couple of seconds by pairing the first and last 50 times to get 50 times 101 or 5050.
If he had been a REAL genius, he'd first have made a guess about what time it would take the others to reach the result, wasted most of the time with daydreaming and come up with the solution a minute or so before the others! You know, like Bubka, who earned a fortune by putting another centimeter onto his own world records some thirty times, instead of trying immediately and fail as many times. So a genius had made bets or something, like being able to add any number of folliwng integers in record time, never telling anyone how he did until he was rich.
That brings us back - imagine what would happen if you had only 2 days for the work becausr it would be considered sufficient.

[Elvin]

I had heard of little Gauss though at the time I did not know him I tend to let things for later but I lack the genious part Depends on how much you like what you have to do, I'll usually find the things that need to be addressed and go do something else

[Jolly Joker]

What I meant to say is, that leaving things for later already IS the genious part - provided you manage the task. Because that means you do it in less time than was allocated AND you knew beforehand you could do it so, which in turn means your "inner clock" is working fine. I mean, Gauss' colleagues couldn't come up with a "better" result by taking more time (which MIGHT be a small problem in other areas of work).
So in reality - since Gauss WAS a genious - the story goes this way:
After being tasked with summing things up, Gauss simply wasn't interested in it; he know somehow, his brain would come up with something ingenious to solve the problem much faster than in what remained from the class, so he began formulating a love letter to his female colleague Maria, sitting a couple of places to the right behind him. When he had finished, the murmur told him that pupils around him had reached the high 80s to sum things up, so he figured now might be the time to start. And due to his genious he still finished before the others.

[Elvin]

As long as you do it because you are confident you'll work it out easily yes but there are always cases of overestimating or irresponsibility where they eventually fail in the task.
If the inner clock works fine then you definitely have something to show

[Pol]

Is happiness manufactured in a bottle?

Only if it's equipped with Genie!

Nah I always prefer fast approach, only with computers it does not work. Usually for first time you just don't know what all the pc will put in your way. (missing software, mysterious clipboard errors, need to defrag, got virus, missing files, etc... no need to mention that computers are so much slower than human mind...)

[ThunderTitan]

Is happiness manufactured in a bottle?

No, they just bottle it so it matures...

[Veldrynus]

What I meant to say is, that leaving things for later already IS the genious part - provided you manage the task. Because that means you do it in less time than was allocated AND you knew beforehand you could do it so, which in turn means your "inner clock" is working fine. I mean, Gauss' colleagues couldn't come up with a "better" result by taking more time (which MIGHT be a small problem in other areas of work).

I think, it takes more to be a genius, than just solving things in the last minute. Most people simply KNOW that there's always much more time given than needed, and it's not so hard to estimate the time required to do the task. After a while, you get into this routine. Many students do it this way, and only a few fail. I'm a master at solving things in the last minute, but still, I'm nowhere near a genius.
Gauss was a genius because he almost instantly, found a solution no one else thought about.

[Jolly Joker]

Just teasing Kalah. That's why I slipped in the alternative Gauss' history - to make it obvious it's not meant serious.
I don't really feel up to a discussion what makes a real genius and what not.
Even though that might be worth a thread? What makes a genius? What IS genius?

[ThunderTitan]

He should have found the solution right away and then muck about... that way if someone said he found the answer before his estimate he could just say he finished too... and that's why none of you are smart...

[Kalah]

What makes a genius? What IS genius?

Dude, you've been here for a while now, witnessing my activities first-hand. You should know the definition of a genious by now.

[Veldrynus]

A genius wouldn't spend his time on such a forum...

[Elvin]

LOOOL! Playing LotA book 2 and I just saw a gaint mutated whale reference

[Metathron]

He/She/It has become something of a pop culture icon in the HoMM world!

[theLuckyDragon]

All hail the MGW!

[Elvin]

Any chance someone knows how to export custom emoticons from msn?

[Pol]

@for Elvin
> http://forum.mess.be/index.php?showtopic=6697