You know, I'm looking at the title of this post and knowing search engines will have convulsions over it. "Mistakecule"? Well, as much as I know about search engines (see links below) and with my propensity towards persnickitiness...
I'll be posting elsewhere about the great deal of math work I've been involved in as of late...basically the entirety of 1Q09. The problems I'm solving are varied and fascinating...particularly because they all relate to game theory and something called groupoids and both have to do with (among other things) market predictability, economics, social networking, wom, ...
It also has applications in more interesting things like winning games of solitaire and such. As a matter of fact, I suggested to some folks that they apply these rules (I'm getting to them, don't worry) to solitaire games because they demonstrate the rules so perfectly.
The rules (there are only two. I love it when things are obviously that simple) deal with removing -- or at least minimizing -- the probability of making mistakes. These rules won't remove mistakes (I'm still working on that one. Anybody familiar with Nevil Shute's "No, it wasn't an accident, I didn't say that. It was carefully planned, down to the tiniest mechanical and emotional detail. But it was a mistake." from On the Beach?) and the mistakes that are still makeable can still be grand ones.
The purpose of these rules is to tend towards 0 the likelihood that a mistake will be made.
Let me give you some examples of what I'm talking about.
First, these rules apply to all mistakes, little and big alike. Second, it doesn't play any role in determining if the mistake that falls through the cracks will be big or small. As a mentor once told me, if you're going to make a mistake then by god make it a big one. At least that way you'll know it when it happens.Another mentor once told me (in mathematics and also applied to life in general) "If you're going to make a mistake, make it at the beginning. You can usually figure out what the mistake is and fix it pretty easily. It's the mistakes you make once you're really into something that are difficult to get around."
Rule #1 - Eliminate Variables
The branches of mathematics from which these rules come usually deal with lots of variables. I mean lots (!!!) of variables. Linear Algebra provides some methods for eliminating variables and that's not what's at work here. Here you want to transfer your variables from unknowns into knowns, not necessarily constants but something I named constant variables back when I was penning trade-technicals back in the late 1980s (and a concept fundamental to anyone familiar with elementary calculus).
Any situation you're in will tend to have lots of unknowns. Meeting with a prospect, for example. Lots of unknowns there. Learn as much as you can about the prospect, their business, how they learned about you, their goals, ... , and you begin to see how easy it is to apply mathematics to life. Is there something about the prospect or the situation you don't know or understand? Ask.
Rule #2 - Remove Ambiguities
Another way to state this is "Look for the unambiguous move and take it". Ambiguities exist in consciousness as conceptual conflicts and can be moral, philosophical, cognitive, spiritual, ... They exist in mathematics because information hasn't resolved itself into categories (groups or arrays (and probably not 'arrays' as you think of arrays)). Ambiguities can be thought of as risk functions and why bother when they can be removed? And if they can't be removed immediately? Then find the move or path that has no ambiguities associated with it and take that. Often so doing will remove the ambiguity and reveal a well defined solution set.
And in the real world...
Applying these two rules as multi-field integrations (think of a big, honking loop in a computer program) allow you to predict age and gender with (it seems) pretty good accuracy.
And in the real real world...
So far I've demonstrated that these two rules -- as simple as they are -- provide consistent wins in Klondike, Casino Klondike, Canfield, Russian Bank and a solitaire game the name of which I do not know.
There's also anecdotal evidence that it works when playing Hearts.
And people didn't want to play cards with me before...
Please contact NextStage for information regarding presentations and trainings on this and other topics.
Links for this post:
Upcoming Conferences:- teaching a Masters Class among other things at the iMediaConnection Brand Summit 7-10 June 09 in Colorado Springs, Colorado
- doing a presentation on Machine Detection of and Response to User Non-Conscious Thought Processes to Increase Usability, Experience and Satisfaction - Case Studies and Examples at the Towards a Science of Consciousness 2009 11-14 June 09 in Hong Kong, China
- presenting a formal research paper entitled Machine Detection of and Response to User Non-Conscious Thought Processes to Increase Usability, Experience and Satisfaction - Case Studies and Examples at The 7th International Conference on Computing, Communications and Control Technologies: CCCT 2009, The 2nd International Multi-Conference on Engineering and Technological Innovation: IMETI 2009 10-13 July 09 in Orlando, Florida
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