"No one has found a solution"

True stories are the best stories - this one is worth repeating ... again..

This is a WONDERFUL story of the Power of Positive Thinking.

‘The story that follows is true and is one of the greatest examples ever of the power of positive thinking. Though it happened in the 1940’s - it still resonates with power. The excerpt below is from an interview with mathematician George Dantzig in the 1970’s, as recorded in the book ‘More Mathematical People’.)

(Side Note: The basic story persisted in the form of an urban legend and as an introductory scene in the movie Good Will Hunting.

Interviewer:

How did it happen that you did your PHD on a statistical topic when you took so few courses in statistics?

Dantzig:

It happened because during my first year at Berkely arrived late one day to one of Jerzy Neyman's classes. On the blackboard there were two problems which I assumed had been assigned for homework. I copied them down. A few days later I apologized to Neyman for taking so long to do the homework - the problems seemed to be a little harder to do than usual. I asked him if he still wanted the work. He told me to throw it on his desk.

I did so reluctantly because his desk was covered with such a heap of papers that I feared my homework would be lost there forever.

About six weeks later, one Sunday morning about 8 o'clock, Anne and I were awakened by someone banging on our front door. It was Neyman. He rushed in with papers in hand, all excited: "I've just written an introduction to one of your papers. Read it so I can send it out right away for publication!".

That was the first inkling I had that there was anything special about the problems.

If I had known that the problems were →not homework - but were in fact 2 FAMOUS UNSOLVED PROBLEMS IN STATISTICS, I probably would have not thought positively, would have become discouraged, and would never have solved them.

Interviewer: Is it true, that the story of your homework problems has been used by ministers in sermons?

Dantzig:

Several years ago (1980’s), the Reverend Schuler and I happened to have adjacent seats on an airplane. He told me about his ideas of thinking positively and I told him my story about the homework problems and my thesis.

A few months later I received a letter from him asking to include my story in his book about positive thinking, and to use it in a sermon.

The moral of his sermon was this: If I had known that the problems were not homework but were in fact two famous unsolved problems in statistics, I probably would have not thought positively, would have become discouraged, and would never have solved them.

The moral of this true story is the same.. If we don’t reckon our problems insurmountable, then we’re halfway to overcoming them.

How can we see our problems as overcomable.. and conquer them?

Thrugh Jesus the Christ.

As the Book says - “We are MORE THAN CONQUERORS through him, (Jesus Christ) that loved us.”

Many people have proven this to be true over the 2000 years since Jesus walked among men. If you have a story to tell, I would love to hear it! My email is: thetyrannyofmasks@proton.me

From Albers, Donald J.; Alexanderson, Gerald L.; Reid, Constance, eds. (1990). "George B. Dantzig". More Mathematical People. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. pp. 60–79. ISBN 978-0-15-

This story has been told many times, and in fact, has become the subject of sermons. I credit this particular telling of the true story to Tom Saltsman, on Quora.

Thank you Tom! VCJB