Talking to Your Trash Can
Admirers ignore a mathematician to revere her wastebasket, full of a million false ideas.
Drawn for an essay by James Propp.
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Cartoon by Ben Orlin, Math with Bad Drawings. https://cartoons.mathwithbaddrawings.com/2020-02-17-talking-to-your-trash-can/ (CC BY-NC 4.0)Transcript
Visitors: "We're honored to be in your presence!" "You have so much to teach us!" Mathematician: "Uh, thank you! But I'm over here." Visitors: "Yes, we know. We're talking to your trash can. For every true thing you know, it knows a million false ones!"
[Quote] "What secrets the erasers and wastebaskets of mathematicians could tell us, if only they could talk!" – Jim Propp