Of course, even if I have no complete answer to 34 × 57, I still have “intuitive feelings and opinions” about it, and so do you. For example, I know it’s between 100 and 10000 just by counting the digits, and although I’ve just now gone and formalized this intuition, it was there before the math: if I claimed that 34 × 57 = 218508 then I’m sure most people here would call me out long before doing the calculation.
What has this got to do with the original quote? The quote was claiming, truthfully or not, that when one is first presented with a certain type of problem, one is dumbfounded for a period of time. And of course the problem is solvable, and of course even without calculating it you can get a rough picture of the range the answer is in, and with a certain amount of practice one can avoid the dumbfoundedness altogether and move on to solving the problem, and that is a fine response to give to the original quote, but it has no relevance to what I was saying.
All I was saying is that it is an invalid objection to object to the quote based on the fact that with a certain technique the specific example given by the quote can be avoided, as that example could have easily been replaced by a similar example which that technique does not solve. I was talking about that specific objection I was not saying the quote is perfect, or even that it is entirely right. You may raise these other objections to it. But the specific objection that Jayson_Virissimo raised happens to be entirely invalid.
I wasn’t trying to contradict you. Try reading my comment again without the “No, you’re wrong, and here’s why” you seem to have imagined attached to the beginning.
Of course, even if I have no complete answer to 34 × 57, I still have “intuitive feelings and opinions” about it, and so do you. For example, I know it’s between 100 and 10000 just by counting the digits, and although I’ve just now gone and formalized this intuition, it was there before the math: if I claimed that 34 × 57 = 218508 then I’m sure most people here would call me out long before doing the calculation.
What has this got to do with the original quote? The quote was claiming, truthfully or not, that when one is first presented with a certain type of problem, one is dumbfounded for a period of time. And of course the problem is solvable, and of course even without calculating it you can get a rough picture of the range the answer is in, and with a certain amount of practice one can avoid the dumbfoundedness altogether and move on to solving the problem, and that is a fine response to give to the original quote, but it has no relevance to what I was saying.
All I was saying is that it is an invalid objection to object to the quote based on the fact that with a certain technique the specific example given by the quote can be avoided, as that example could have easily been replaced by a similar example which that technique does not solve. I was talking about that specific objection I was not saying the quote is perfect, or even that it is entirely right. You may raise these other objections to it. But the specific objection that Jayson_Virissimo raised happens to be entirely invalid.
I wasn’t trying to contradict you. Try reading my comment again without the “No, you’re wrong, and here’s why” you seem to have imagined attached to the beginning.
Oh god. Everyone stop talking.