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Torkel Franzen <torkel@xxxxxxxxxx> writes:
> "Karl M. Bunday" <kmbunday@xxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
>
>> I usually put the cranks into my kill file as rapidly as they
>> change their email addresses, but I like to read the replies to the
>> cranks because reading serious mathematicians explaining errors of
>> logic is educational.
>
> Surely not after the umpteenth explanation? There is very little
> variation in the responses to cranks, just as there is very little
> variation in the postings of the cranks themselves.
Oh, there are educational strokes of genius from time to time, things
where you say "well, they just _have_ to understand it the way it is
explained now". Those replies tend to get ignored completely by the
addressed persons, but they still are inspirational.
Not because you'd learn something new about the math (at least with
the dimwits like TO and WM that are lost in basics: with JSH, there
were quite a few replies where one also could learn about involved
issues), but because you learn a good twist about _teaching_ it. Even
if it is lost on the nominal recipient.
--
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum
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