Elegance is for tailors. Often attributed to Einstein, physicist Ludwig Boltzmann actually said those words. Einstein did say, "A scientific theory should be as simple as possible, but no simpler." It's an open question which is more elegant.
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| Albert Einstein |
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| Ludwig Boltzmann |
Reading
Pat Sherwood
’s lovely paean to CrossFit (and Coach Greg Glassman’s)
elegance, I was struck by the mention of Blaise Pascal—a mention not surprising given his role in developing some of the most elegant (and useful) theory in mathematics.
The first time I ever came across a workout with the 21-15-9 structure, I thought of Pascal’s arithmetical triangle.
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| Pascal's Arithmetical Triangle |
Looks like Greg Glassman is a genius.
But, I wondered when I saw the workout, why not 10 instead of 9?
Because the human brain needs a finish line. And with workouts only slightly less harrowing than
this experience, I understood. 70 reps into ‘Fran’, 9 looks a lot better than 10, for reasons Sherwood nicely articulates.
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| Coach Greg Glassman |
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| Pat Sherwood |
