Emergent Practicality

Half the battle is in choosing the problems — not in coming up with the solutions.  If you get the right problems, if you ask the right questions, you’re a long way to the solution.
Find problems that emerge out of applications.  The danger is to get into some little branch of theory that becomes self-feeding and doesn’t tie back into the real world.  I have always tried to work on problems that have some practical importance, for which I thought I could get algorithms that would be practical.
[On the other hand], you never can tell when some idea generated in some isolated area turns out to connect with something else.  The magic of mathematics and theoretical computer science is all the unexpected connections.  You start looking for general principles and then mysterious connections emerge.  Nobody can say why this is.
—    Robert E. Tarjan
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On This Day In:
2022	End The Filibuster
2021	Be Creative, Question Assumptions
	By No Means
2020	I’ll Eat To That (Gemütlichkeit)
	To The Front
2019	#ContinueToResist
	Except Willful Ignorance And Prideful Stupidity
2018	More Executive Time For #DumbDonald
2017	Watched The Inauguration
	Two Geniuses
2016	Come Dance And Laugh With Me
2015	Looks Good To Me
2014	Desire For The Sea
2013	The Fierce Urgency Of NOW
	Happy Inauguration Day!
2012	One Path
	Sorrow And Joy
	The Seven Year View
2011	Emergent Practicality

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