Saturday, February 09, 2008

Metaphors

Someone told me I speak in metaphors. I recently spoke about how the referees plop down the football where they believe the ball advanced, this is fairly rough, and then they take out a precise chain to measure out the yards. You give up some at one place and are painstakingly accurate elsewhere. Research and researchers tend to be that way too: we are less than angst-ridden in modeling an optimization problem, and then are painstakingly accurate in getting a precise approximation ratio. Sometimes the optimization may not capture the underlying bottleneck in the system in practice. Which brings me to another metaphor I am tempted to use as I go through the day and almost always manage to trap it before it tumbles past my lips: you don't go to war with the army you want, you go to war with the army you got.

3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

bit like researchers many a times aren't hugely particular about the sample chosen for the survey and then calculate and analyse data that doesnt really represent the correct picture..?

7:24 PM  
Anonymous cheap viagra said...

Well I love listening to people who speak in metaphors, it is like speaking with a poet... "Poetic Dialogue" I'd say. Well, it was really entertaining.

10:22 AM  
Anonymous viagra online said...

Well it depends, I got a couple of friends on my mind that can't stop speaking in a very bothering metaphorical way, which is exasperating when you come up with the reason why they do that... any ways, probably it is not your case... Metaphors are petty in the right context, that 's my point.

2:24 PM  

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