A professor of psychology was exploring the creative process
and as one of his
subjects chose a mathematician who was world famous for his
ability to solve problems. They gave him a problem to work on. He
wrote something down and immediately scribbled it out. He wrote
something else down and scribbled it out. The professor asked him to
leave everything on the page. He explained that
he was interested in
the process, the wrong answers and the right answers. The
mathematician sat down. Wrote something. The psychology professor
waited in
anticipation but the mathematician announced he could not proceed
without erasing his mistakes.
While the mathematician in this situation is undoubtedly fairly
idiosyncratic in how he attacks problems there is a strongly felt
separation between the creative process of mathematics and the
published or finished product.
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