<div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;background-color:transparent">On Sun, Aug 30, 2026 at 10:01 AM Ben Zaiboc via extropy-chat <<a href="mailto:extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org">extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org</a>> wrote:</span></div></div><div class="gmail_quote gmail_quote_container"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr"><br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><b><font face="tahoma, sans-serif" size="4"><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">>> </span>On 29/08/2026 21:11, John K Clark quoted:<br></font></b><b><font face="tahoma, sans-serif" size="4"> "If I ask you which is harder — folding laundry or doing a backflip — most people will say folding laundry is way easier".</font></b></blockquote>
<br><font size="4" face="georgia, serif"><i>
<span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">> </span>Is that really true?<br>
If so, I'd have to conclude that most people are stupid. A moment's thought will show that folding laundry has many more variables than doing a backflip, so it has to be harder.<br>
Maybe what this means is that the author /assumes/ that most people will think that folding laundry is easier than doing a backflip. That reveals more about the author than about 'most people'.</i></font><br></blockquote><div><br></div><div><font size="4" face="tahoma, sans-serif"><b>Another question the answer of which may not be the obvious one is the following:<span class="gmail_default" style=""> </span></b></font><br></div><div><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br></span></div><div><font size="4" face="tahoma, sans-serif"><b style="">At <span class="gmail_default" style="">the most</span> fundamental level, which requires more computational brain power, being a tenured<span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"> </span>professor of mathematics at a major university, or being a janitor at a major university?<span class="gmail_default" style=""> </span></b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="tahoma, sans-serif"><b style=""><span class="gmail_default" style=""><br></span></b></font></div><div><div class="gmail_default" style=""><font size="4" style="" face="tahoma, sans-serif"><b>John K Clark</b></font></div><br></div><div> </div></div></div>