Life is NP complete
So, I was walking around Manhattan today. I did that for about 3 hours today, and passed a lot of cool buildings such as the Maritime Hotel in Chelsea. It has portholes for windows, and was once built for a sailor's union, and then used for housing runaways. Now it's only $395 a night - a bargain for the wonderful smaller-than-usual-but-uniquely-shaped view. I wonder if they have smaller but rounder beds too. Anyway, the building looks cool. So I was walking around, and I was trying to figure out what I needed to change in my life.
I need to start learning french again. I need to start cooking more. I need to buy more clothes. I need to find something that will truly make me happy that I can sink myself into. I need to change our place around. I need to start finding more music that I like. I need to find new things that I haven't done before and go out and do them. And learn how to dance. And play the guitar.
So there's no way I can do all this, or would want to do all of it. So it got me thinking - how do you figure out what's the best way to spend your time? There's no answer I know. But there's this problem called the knapsack problem in computer science. Basically the idea is that if you have a knapsack that only holds so much weight, and you've got valuables of different worth and different sizes - how do you fill it so that you get the most value stuffed into one knapsack? The problem is impossible to solve quickly, making it part of a set of problems called NP complete. So maybe people who say they lived a full life really just mean they managed to really fill their knapsack.
I need to start learning french again. I need to start cooking more. I need to buy more clothes. I need to find something that will truly make me happy that I can sink myself into. I need to change our place around. I need to start finding more music that I like. I need to find new things that I haven't done before and go out and do them. And learn how to dance. And play the guitar.
So there's no way I can do all this, or would want to do all of it. So it got me thinking - how do you figure out what's the best way to spend your time? There's no answer I know. But there's this problem called the knapsack problem in computer science. Basically the idea is that if you have a knapsack that only holds so much weight, and you've got valuables of different worth and different sizes - how do you fill it so that you get the most value stuffed into one knapsack? The problem is impossible to solve quickly, making it part of a set of problems called NP complete. So maybe people who say they lived a full life really just mean they managed to really fill their knapsack.