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My thoughts on efficiency

Today I typed out the proof of the Fundamental Theorem of Galois Theory. I'm almost done but I took a break. 


Well, today felt good. I finally wrote that Pascal's triangle article. It wasn't so hard. Took only an hour to do. And doing illustrations was fun too. Even if that project won't go anywhere, at least I had fun doing it. Next agenda is to read the articles downloaded and see if there's something there. 


Catalan numbers. Manhattan distance. And so on and so forth. I don't really think I've done anything substantial today. Because I know I can do so much more in a day. But should I? What if I burn out?


While writing the Pascal's article I had this realization that that problem is all about efficiency. And this connects to the "optimize before synthesize" post that I wrote a while ago. Or the "embrace the mess" post that I've been meaning to write. What's this obsession with efficiency? Is efficiency always good?


By trying to be efficient, I don't allow myself to make mistakes. And that stops me from even starting. I'm afraid to make a mess. 


But making a mess is always gonna be a part of the process. Thank God I have a scratch paper with me. I think having that around has freed me to make as much mess as possible. With notebooks not so much. I'm afraid to make a mess on those. 


Which reminds me of that picture that I took. If we're not allowed to make mistakes, then why do correction tapes exist? Why is the undo button allowed?


Mistakes are part of life. Embrace it. By being allergic to it, we block the creative flow. In a way, trying to be efficient makes us inefficient. Huh.

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