Sidek's notesA site nobody will ever readSkip to contentAboutOpen-mindednessWhen I was in grade two, we were learning about how one would say the names of numbers. This was a one, this was a ten, this was a hundred and so on. That day, we ended off with learning what ‘thousand’ was.Shortly after, I got involved in an argument : which was bigger, 1000 or 1050?“Well, surely, because the largest number I learned is 1000 “, I reasoned , “, the answer is clearly 1000. 1050 is some construct – I’m not sure what it means, but it either doesn’t exist or is less than 1000.”This, clearly, was flawed logic. I figured that, just because I couldn’t place 1050, it couldn’t exist. A childish example, sure – but the same trends continue into adulthood.Take the complex numbers. Many outright deny their existence – not because there being such a thing is outrageous, but because they cannot adapt their worldview to accomodate them.One doesn’t even need to stray into fields as ‘weird’ as mathematics.  Look at history : if someone were to tell a European from the 1800s that, perhaps, those of colour are no worse than the white man, they would reply as if that person was crazy. “But is it not the case that the coloured man has worse mental faculties and, indeed, is coloured due to the fact that his people suffered punishment by God? “, they’d perhaps say.Not only is closed-mindedness prevalent- it is also frightening, as the above example might show. This is why it’s so important to remain open-minded.As such, next time that you hear something you find crazy, think about why you find it crazy. What’s your reason? How deep does your reason go? Is it a good reason?If everyone were to do this, hopefully we wouldn’t have as prejudiced a world as we do now.November 7, 2011 – 8:42 pm|By sidek|Posted in Uncategorized|Comments (0)Why do I like what I like?A while ago, I was thinking about why I like what I like. Sure, I might be very fond of anime, math, computers , books and various sorts of games, but why? There is some reason, although, due to the immense amount of possible factors, deriving an exact cause could perhaps be very difficult. For …Read More →August 22, 2011 – 11:47 pm|By sidek|Posted in Uncategorized|Comments (0)A bit of an odd essayWell, this topic came to me as a suggestion from an IRC channel I was on, and it’s a bit odd. Just a warning.   A man opens a box, only to find his head inside it. An odd story, to be sure, but does it have any appreciable metaphorical meaning? I would suggest it …Read More →July 25, 2011 – 9:57 pm|By sidek|Posted in Uncategorized|Comments (0)ASMI week oneWell, this week that just ended, I started something that looks like it’ll be really cool. It’s the ASMI, or Alberta Summer Mathematics Institute. Essentially, for the first four weeks,