MindYourDecisions
Wow. I knew about the cardiod, the Mandlebrot set, and the times table circular patterns, but I never stopped to think about how they were connected--just amazing! Students often get frustrated when learning math asking, "When will we ever use this?" I think many adults regret not practicing math in school. And conversely, every single part of math I've learned has eventually found use or at least been entertaining later in life. It reminds me of Steve Jobs' commencement speech at Stanford in 2005. He took calligraphy in college when typography was not really a practical field. But it later gave him the idea to put multiple typefaces on the Mac. The connections only made sense in hindsight, as he points out: "Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backward 10 years later. Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life." From the full speech: http://news.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html