Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer)
Newsgroups: can.general
Subject: Re: Words of Wisdom
Message-ID: <6045@utzoo.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 10-Oct-85 15:42:38 EDT
Article-I.D.: utzoo.6045
Posted: Thu Oct 10 15:42:38 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 10-Oct-85 15:42:38 EDT
References: <2293@hcradm.UUCP>, <840@lsuc.UUCP>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Lines: 13

On a similar theme, I remember seeing an article by a Japanese business
expert who often taught courses in North America.  Typically he'd start
out by asking his students to solve a quadratic equation; of course, only
a small fraction of them could.  Most of them resented being asked to do
something so utterly irrelevant to business, until he pointed out that
the very simplest models of practically all financial tradeoffs require
solving quadratic equations.  These people had been trained for acquisitions
and mergers and legal maneuvering; it's no wonder they do such a poor job
of making products and providing services, when all their training leads
them to consider such matters unimportant.
-- 
				Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
				{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry