(read about the Clay Mathematics Institute’s $1 Million prize for solutions to P=NP and other open mathematics questions)

The gig has been up for some time…

Much of old school mathematics (and logic)  may be inconsistent with the modern demands of posing the question. The manners in which we have managed to re-ask and formalize the question in modern times suggests both (1) that its resolution is near and (2) the force of habit is strong and any solution may face fierce opposition from those vested in the “old” order of mathematics. For better, worse or other, mathematics as an art form is on its way back.

The question of P=NP may be unraveled in considering the statement implied in the ostensible question, “Does P=NP?”:

As my instructors know annoyingly well, I have at (most) times been lacking in the “show your work” department.

“I got better!”

Still, with a nod to tradition and the interests emphasized by attorneys near and far, I’ll give here only an outline. The rigorous and symbol-laden “proof” showing mathematics in bed with the sultry likes of

“correlation means causality”

and

*wolf whistle* “that which is immediately obvious to the most casual observer is true” is long, geekilicious, and ratherconveniently withheld pending completion of peer review.

Spoilers:

• References to quantum mechanics & associated theory included
• Widely accepted axioms are cast in a curious light (who questions the suitability of Identity or Reflexivity? I might. Others might.)
• Semantics has its day (or at least its 15 minutes)

The problem of resolving P=NP is the very problem of acknowledging and communicating discrepency between representation and the kinds of reality we’re more welcome to discuss in polite company these days, thanks to pioneering research in quantum mechanics. The writeup serves as a brief pedigree of modern mathematics theory, and may manage to invite mathematical and physical fringe theory and modern sociolinguistics into the throne of more classical logic and mathematics.

(This is a rushed post. It has been gathering dust as a Draft for …”some time”; business willing, I may return to update or flush it out some)

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I sold knives.

In people’s homes.

It did rock.

( I still have and wear the t-shirt on which this post’s title is written and based. )

Here’s how CutCo worked for me and how I’d recommend the  CutCo experience (or something like it):

1.  Organization.

• It is a well-oiled machine (at least it was where and when I was involved).
• It was my first real, sustained, formal sales experience. While I took to it comfortably, there were many people and resources there to answer questions, offer guidance, and offer cushion for any falls.
• CutCo gave marketing materials, price books, samples for demonstration, scheduling assistance, and tiered training to gradually teach new reps the literal and figurative  tools of the trade.
• As a representative, I could stand behind the fact that the pricing was set in advance; that there were no real gimmicks; that we were given guidelines for discounting; and that the products were indeed high quality and generally useful.

2. Variety of Generally Useful Stuff.

• It takes a special kind of person to enjoy selling people things they neither want nor need. CutCo never asked me to do this.
• With CutCo, I sold something most people could easily see themselves using. I sold something that most people found interesting and relevant to their daily lives.
• I sold something that most people saw as an improvement to the “closest comparables” they had.
• These things matter(ed) to me.

3. Education.

• I learned about knives.
• I learned about marketing.
• I learned about CutCo’s proprietary technologies.
• I learned about how to cut.
• I learned about how to represent CutCo.
• In learning within a company that wasn’t afraid to blur the line between employment and company ownership, I learned about business.
• ( I’m not being paid to post this entry. yet. )

4. Direct Sales!

• No Cold Calling
• No bitter aftersale-aftertaste.
• No missed opportunity to recommend a better fit or a better deal.
• Our appointments were invite-only. No door-to-door messiness. During my appointment presentations, I presented to people who invited me there.
• This matter(ed) to me.

5. I Learned ( How Bad I was in Sales ).

• Sales was not for me.
• Marketing maybe was for me.
• I sought sooner to offer the “best” fit than to maximize revenues. I forwent opportunities to make sales and opted to listen and recommend based on dialog and sense.
• I had a few warnings about eschewing my own profit for the sake of offering a “good deal” and thanks; my local “higher ups”saw fit to send me to a National convention in Atlanta even while my deflated margins  didn’t technically qualify.
• CutCo’s model made room for people. This matters to me.
• From production and the support offered to production employees; to the lifetime warranties on its Double-D Edge products; to the “earn $13 per appointment flyers” posted on university campuses across the country, CutCo and its direct-sales focused, people-focused structure was not for me but great act to follow, if only in part.

In short, CutCo made my day by allowing for this:

People over money.

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This is a little story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody.

There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it.

Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it.

Somebody got angry about that because it was Everybody’s job.

Everybody thought that Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn’t do it.

It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done

~Author(s) Unknown

…the Nobodys in your life may read the above and see that what was to be done was done.

Fellow anthropologists, teeterers, totterers, tinkerers: comment, message:

To whom is the above attributed these days? Lakota? Sioux? other?

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These should cover most recent questions put to me in this physical fitness department:

• I have never regularly worked out in a gym
• I hope to swim more
  • I have held my breath for at least 5 minutes ( that explains a lot :) )
  • I don’t know the max and would rather not
  • I often don’t breathe
• I have bench pressed at least 3 times my body weight
  • In doing so I won a jolly profitable wager
  • I don’t know the max and would rather not
  • I have never worn a bench press shirt
• I’m more geared for speed than sustained strength these days. It suits
• I’m more flexible now than most times before
• Time was I sprinted.  I still do.  Now I also distance run as needed

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Let’s coordinate translation of the following into עִבְרִית and العربية versions within Wikipedia:

• http://bit.ly/yYM7V
• http://bit.ly/Lpx0B

(Yes, http://bit.ly/1hThOn but it’s no http://bit.ly/Lpx0B for content or disposition)

I lack the time and tools to do this well and consistently anytime soon.

Let’s do this soon.

Be advised: I have met with determined opposition in pursuing this. Take that (or not) as you will.

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Potential and choice:  about the closest we have to true synonyms?

Either way, c’est la vie, non?

How do you think (about this)?

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I still don’t assume causality and am still inclined to suggest “otherwise”.

If we should have the opportunity to speak again thereafter, soon there may be both language and context for us to discuss a kind of response.

You suggested that, to propose other than causality, I must offer an alternative.

Then much as now, I don’t see a sense of implied obligation to demonstrate or convince as material to the relevance, suitability, or sharing of the notion in question.

I do maintain that, before or outside of any proposals by people, “what might have been” may have been and “what may yet be” may yet be.

The demand for an alternative may, in turn, assume causality, which may not be conducive to entertaining the notions other than causality.

Regarding that language and that context… it may indeed be very, very succinct and welcome on your part.  They may together serve to at once attract a fruitfully new kind of attention, which may, in turn, as well support a simple reflection too basic and primordial for efficient and practiced minds to comfortably volunteer.

I hope we’ll both be around to talk then and there.

Whatever the feelings through your words, I thank you for encouraging me along the ways of the world. My own practice in those ways is a significant part of what distinguishes me now from me then;  I have learned much the fashionable cognitive idiom to speak to those timeless and wordless things that we accept by our very existence–and yet, don’t.

I’m still learning : )

–Steve

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