February 7th, 2013

Once you know something can be done, doing it is much easier

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

Unfortunately, I don’t remember the name of the star of this story, but I’m told that there was a notable mathematician who believed the Perfect Graph Conjecture to be false and spent many years trying to prove it one way or another.

Meanwhile, another mathematician (presumably László Lovász) announced that he had found a proof (in the affirmative).

Upon hearing the news that the open question had been resolved, the first mathematician was able to produce a proof within 90 minutes.

Once again showing that it’s much easier to do something once you know it can be done.

Category
Old New Thing
Topics
Non-Computer

Author

Raymond Chen

Raymond has been involved in the evolution of Windows for more than 30 years. In 2003, he began a Web site known as The Old New Thing which has grown in popularity far beyond his wildest imagination, a development which still gives him the heebie-jeebies. The Web site spawned a book, coincidentally also titled The Old New Thing (Addison Wesley 2007). He occasionally appears on the Windows Dev Docs Twitter account to tell stories which convey no useful information.

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