If you attack a mathematical problem directly, very often you come to a dead end, nothing you do seems to work and you feel that if only you could peer round the corner there might be an easy solution. There is nothing like having somebody else beside you, because he can usually peer round the corner.
Interpretation
Collaboration can lead to new perspectives and solutions to difficult problems.
This quote by Michael Atiyah emphasizes the value of collaboration and seeking support when faced with challenging problems, especially in mathematics. It suggests that while direct attacks on complex issues can lead to frustration and dead ends, having someone else involved in the process can provide new insights and alternative approaches, highlighting the importance of shared perspectives in problem-solving.
In practice
In a team meeting discussing project challenges, this quote could inspire collaboration among team members.
In the broad light of day mathematicians check their equations and their proofs, leaving no stone unturned in their search for rigour. But, at night, under the full moon, they dream, they float among the stars and wonder at the miracle of the heavens. They are inspired. Without dreams there is no art, no mathematics, no life.
Faith is an excitement and an enthusiasm: it is a condition of intellectual magnificence to which we must cling as to a treasure, and not squander on our way through life in the small coin of empty words, or in exact and priggish argument.
Live one day at a time emphasizing ethics rather than rules.
In order to carry a positive action we must develop here a positive vision.
Stupidity is active in every direction, and can dress up in all the clothes of truth. Truth, on the other hand, has for every occasion only one dress and one path, and is always at a disadvantage.
Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.
Talking isn't doing. It is a kind of good deed to say well; and yet words are not deeds.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.