Chess

A chess problem is

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A chess problem is genuine mathematics, but it is in some way trivial mathematics. However, ingenious and intricate, however original and surprising the moves, there is something essential lacking. Chess problems are unimportant. The best mathematics is serious as well as beautiful-important if you like, but the word is very ambiguous, and serious expresses what … Read more

Reductio ad absurdum, which

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Reductio ad absurdum, which Euclid loved so much, is one of a mathematician’s finest weapons. It is a far finer gambit than any chess play: a chess player may offer the sacrifice of a pawn or even a piece, but a mathematician offers the game. G. H. Hardy

…once the cards are

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…once the cards are dealt we turn them up in turn, and make two piles each, one red, one black; the winner has the biggest pile of red ones. So once the cards are dealt the game is determined, and from any position in it you can derive all others back to the deal and … Read more

You know, also I,

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You know, also I, you know, I was on those birth control pills and my breasts were like, they hurt… and, you know, it was like they blew up like. You know, they wouldn’t fit into any of my dresses. I had to quit taking those birth control pills… This was like – I mean … Read more