Invisible wrote:
> http://www.xkcd.com/530/
> 
> There seems to be something wrong about the way certain "really clever" 
> people think. As if they think of complex solutions before investigating 
> simple ones.
> 
> I think devising a solution to a problem is basically a search of the 
> problem-space. And that space is pretty huge, so it must be some kind of 
> heuristic search. I hypothesize that certain people just have a slightly 
> faulty heuristic. ;-)

Reminds me of an incident with my wife and I and a toaster:

We have these pastries, toaster strudels, Essentially a flaky version of 
a pop-tart. I had been laying them horizontally because that seemed to 
be the most stable and logical arrangement for the pastries. Except when 
   the toaster finishes, and they pop up, they're inaccessible without 
burning your fingers. So, I devised a method using a plastic fork (I'm 
smart enough to know you don't go sticking metal forks into toasters) 
which worked well for me.

Then my wife prepares my breakfast one morning. Or, at least, starts it. 
I hear the toaster pop, and go to retrieve my breakfast to find that the 
pastries are conveniently sticking out of the top.

...

You mean you can actually put them in vertically, and they actually 
toast fully and evenly without falling over, AND they can be retrieved 
without tools?

<facepalm/>


-- 
~Mike

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