Here is my trivial question:
Who 'invented' the asterisk after synchronous siteswaps so that they repeat on both sides? I think lots of people here will know the answer but that's maybe because I made the question.
Also a not so trivial question:
Why do you think most jugglers are above average smart? At least that's the case with 99% of the jugglers I know.
Little Paul - - Genitore #
You wouldn't know that from meeting some of the compsci students I've worked with over the years
I did deliberately say "through" in order to exclude various people of my acquaintance....
Little Paul - - Genitore #
In the cold light of day, I'm going to revise my statement to "you wouldn't know that from some of the compsci lecturers I've dealt with over the years"
I'm going to guess Ben Beever for the asterisk based on the wording he uses in his book, but I really don't know. Maybe it was Colin Wright.
I don't believe that people differ greatly in natural intelligence. Some people just challenge themselves more. The kind of person that challenges themselves to do difficult juggling tricks is the same kind of person who challenges themselves intellectually. Hence why so many jugglers can't resist the challenge of a Rubik's cube for example. Is anyone else here addicted to the game 2048 (just search Google)?
Rob van Heijst - - Genitore #
Ben Beever is correct! He told us on Dumbo Days that he had made an assignment of siteswaps and that he put a little asterisk behind all the synch siteswaps with a note on the bottom that every trick with an asterisk is repeated on the other side. Later other jugglers started using this symbol naturally for this purpose. He said that since it wasn't his intention to invent this for general use he doesn't want the credits for it. However indirect he did invent it so I give him the credits!
That makes sense. You hear a lot about that juggling stimulates the growth of grey matter in the brain (but so does every other activity) but I couldn't believe it would be that effective. I just found out about the 2048 game last week but I didn't have much time to play it yet. My highscore is 9996 and one time I got a tile of 1024. Down, right, down, right, down, right all the way ;)
Actually, I now remember Sean Gandini thanking Ben Beever for the asterisk in the siteswap DVD.
Here's my 2048 PB so far.
https://i.imgur.com/Vpy5g2w.png
Little Paul - - Genitore #
I've been enjoying https://doge2048.com more, largely because of the lack of clues about which images score what.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/32kzgfggzff7myb/Photo%20Apr%2022%2C%202%2045%2048%20PM.png
Here's the 8192 bit. I'm stopping here. It doesn't show in my preview unless I tap the question mark icon.
That's very impressive. I stopped playing long ago when the individual games started taking too long. I think the largest possible tile is 2^17 = 131072, but the chance of getting it would be very low.
That game is frustratingly addictive Peter, I'm not grateful for your 'introducing' it to me
You're a horrible person.
I was addicted since you posted about this game until now when I finally got the 2048 tile.
Crappy game.
OK a more serious hypothesis.
What you're seeing as "smart" is really only innate intelligence to a small degree. Mostly it's the product of someone who has had the persistence, focus, time and opportunity to learn about things in some depth.
In the same way, what you might think of as "juggling talent" is probably only talent to a small degree; mostly it's having the sheer bloody mindedness to put in enough constructive practice.
If this is the case then it's not surprising that the two things correlate.
noslowerdna - - Genitore #
I agree, there are many other aspects besides raw intelligence. In particular, the "gets things done" factor.
It's remarkable what can be achieved by simply combining persistence and curiosity.