An engineer wakes up to find their wastebasket is on fire. After consulting a handy red fire booklet, they empty four fire extenguishers into the flames, completely extinguishing them.
A physicist wakes to a similar situation. After making some observations, they poor a small cup of water in one side of the garbage can, and the fire flickers out.
A mathematician wakes up in the middle of the night, to find a small fire burning in the kitchen. The kitchen tap is still working, and their are several large bowls around. Confident that a solution exists, the mathematician goes back to bed.
As I'm writing this, it's a terrible joke. The solution exists, but only for a given time frame, and the mathematician would know that. They would never go back to sleep.
But I often find myself in the same situation. And with the advent of AI, I know a software solution exists. So why even bother pursuing it? Ah but it was never about the destination, always the journey. The doing is the thing
last updated: June 26, 2025