17 Mart 2011 Perşembe

In Pursuit of Elegance

       When my elder sister came to me a few years ago with the question of how to improve her son's concentration, I felt I wasn't very ready to answer the question. But after thinking for a few seconds I told her what came to my mind as a logical solution. He should try to solve some entertaining puzzles/riddles since they are interesting and require some concentration. In fact, math is also a perfect tool to increase concentration but not everybody is good at it. What makes puzzles and riddles interesting? There is a missing part to find out. They say that there is a thin line between genius and madness. But nonsense doesn't mean creative. Or whatever strange isn't always original.
       Perfection is in simplicity. To hide, to express, to give as a result to put in as much as possible in a simple thing. Therefore I don't think that something is more attractive than a perfect thing because there is a missing part in it that builds curiosity. And perfection is not boring at all. Missing parts might attract attention and this idea can/must be used in different spheres of life but people try to complete or solve them to find better ones, even the perfect one if possible. Missing needs to be completed to be perfect. Real elegance is in perfection in a simple way.

2 yorum:

  1. Dear Mr. Ibrahim
    I am in total resonance with your thoughts in the first paragraph but as far as the second paragraph goes, I slightly beg to differ.

    Perfection is boring(full stop). The act of leaving missing parts in something, is a deliberate attempt to recede from perfection and to stimulate the interested group in achieving it.

    The question rises in my mind: Can we give something perfect to an intereseted group and still stimulate their desire to achieve perfection in that thing?

    I think I've got the answer: Using and exploiting SYMMETRY.

    BR
    S.K.

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  2. I like your example Ibrahim. I would like to mention the history of Leonardo Da Vinci and the POPE. When The Pope asked Leonardo to draw something extraordinary in front of him in a piece of paper Leonardo draw a perfect Circle....
    It tells everything I believe.
    Flo

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