Andres:
Pete, ask me some really tough question.
Peter: Uh? Ok. Why do human beings exist? What’s the meaning
of life?
Andres:
Not questions like that. Something like, you know, unsolvable
math problems.
Peter:
Why don’t we start with solvable ones. Tell me the quotient of 11 to the 4th power divided by the square
root of
121....
Andres:
Wait, wait, wait… let me write it down.....11 to the
4th power divided by square root of 121…so it
should be like this... 
......square
root? I think I have learned that. Square root… Hm…
Peter: Come on, you know math
is the subject that you struggle with the most. What’s
gotten into you?
Andres: You remember the movie Good Will Hunting?
Peter: Yup, a janitor at Harvard was actually an undereducated
genius, who solved a super tough math problem posted
for Harvard students. Come on, that’s only a movie!
Andres: No, no. I just found out that it is based
on a real-life event. A doctorate student at Berkeley
actually solved two math problems that were considered
unsolvable at that time, by accident. He went into the
class late, saw two questions on the blackboard, thought
they were the assigned homework, jotted
them down, and
solved them at home. Isn’t that just amazing!
Peter: Charlie, but the guy was a doctorate
student. And you flunk at math every semester, I mean
“every” semester!
Andres: Alright, I just think it’s cool to be that
smart.
Peter: Well, every
cloud has a silver lining. Being too
smart may be detrimental to your health.
Andres: Huh? How?
Peter: A bunch of scientists have discovered a “negative
correlation between an improvement in a fly’s mental
capacity and its longevity.”
Andres: Huh? What does that suppose to mean? Hmm, what
is “correlation” by the way?
Peter: Sorry, I forgot that you
are also bad at English. I will explain. A group of scientists
trained fruit flies to learn. Using behavioral science,
they boosted the flies’ intelligence. The flip
side is
that their life-span is much shorter than their dumber
relatives. In other words, too much neural activity…
um, simply, brain activity, weakens their life-support
system.
Andres: Wow, so it is also beneficial to be
dumb. At least I will probably live longer. Thanks, Don.
Peter: Er, that said, you probably shouldn’t content
yourself with a comparison to fruit flies. They have
really small brains, you know, learning may not have
such a big influence on human’s lives.
Andres: Oh, Don. Stop playing smart. When you are
getting old, you will just start wishing that you are
as dumb as I am, so that you can live longer!
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