## 0602: "Overstimulated"

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WazirKnightBishop
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### Re: "Overstimulated" Discussion

I was reminded of some of the older comics immediately.

Yeah, this comic basically explains what I do when I'm terribly bored, except that I don't have dreams that are half as imaginative as that (my dreams are often just random numbers flying around, or seeing a building in R3 and trying to get to the pith floor (or something like that).)
karst wrote:
capncanuck wrote:Comic implies that:
$\lim_{n \to \infty}\sum_{i=0}^n\frac{1}{P_i}=\infty$
where [imath]P_i[/imath] is a function that generates prime numbers.

Seems straight forward to me as:

$\lim_{n \to \infty}\sum_{i=0}^n\frac{1}{i}=\infty$
is also true.

This won't work. It's true (and not hard to prove) that the harmonic series of natural numbers diverges (your second formula). However, this doesn't necessarily imply that the harmonic series of any subset of the natural numbers diverges. For instance, $\sum_{n=1}^\infty \frac{1}{n^2}$ converges. You have to work harder to show that the harmonic series of primes diverges.

Edit: Sigh... summand and index did not match.

Isn't that a depleted harmonic series?

----

This one makes me feel less alone in this world...
~~~~

kfish
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### Re: "Overstimulated" Discussion

njStryfe wrote:I felt the urge to register just to say this:

I don't have this problem! Because I don't waste my precious time on stupid people. Why would anybody?

Regards,

Nate

Well, this doesn't just happen with stupid people that are always a waste of time. I sat through half an hour conversation when out with friends last weekend about Louis Vuitton handbags, with associated snipes at their common acquaintances who apparently have different tastes. I did this because the people I was with are generally awesome, interesting people with fascinating things to say. They have an interest in expensive fashion that I don't share, but it doesn't mean they're complete wastes of time.

Personally, I think no-one should spend all their time with people who have exactly the same interests, opinions and personalities as themselves. Exposure to differing tastes and opinions is a good thing. It helps to broaden your horizons. And worthwhile people will have an overlap in interests, but probably not exactly the same as mine. The trick is getting the mix right. In my case, I don't mind if they gossip for a little bit about fashion, celebrities or youtube, and they don't mind me zoning out into my own little world when they do. That's one of the many reasons why they're awesome people.

Dynastic
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### Re: "Overstimulated" Discussion

scwizard
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### Re: "Overstimulated" Discussion

I've been to some parties that I found pretty fun, but I've never found parties of any sort relaxing.

The party going on in this comic sounds like the kind of party people have nearby me, and then I need to tell them to turn the music down because I'm trying to sleep.
~= scwizard =~

metalsheep
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### Re: "Overstimulated" Discussion

i just ran a python script as follows... and i get that the series seems to converge to e??
i tried higher powers of two, but its not exactly threaded and my macbook isn't up to the task. I'm going to set one of the servers at work at it overnight to see what 2**20 gives us.

n = 2**16 # finds all primes up to this number
prime_list = [2] #first prime
test = range(n+1)
i = 3
j = 0
m = 0
while i < n+1:
j = 0
while ((test[i] % prime_list[j]) != 0 and (j < m)):
j += 1
if test[i] % prime_list[j] != 0:
prime_list.append(test[i])
m += 1 # m in place of checking against (n-1)/2
i += 1

print prime_list[-1]

primeHarmonic = 0
for x in range(len(prime_list)):
primeHarmonic += 1. / prime_list[x]
print primeHarmonic

Mavrisa
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### Re: "Overstimulated" Discussion

"I think nature's imagination is so much greater than man's, she's never gonna let us relax."

Squid Tamer
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### Re: "Overstimulated" Discussion

The comic's not funny, but very, very true.

I think that we all have seen this situation:

A talks about B when B isn't around.
B finds out, and gets pissed off and talks about A when A isn't around.
A finds out, and gets pissed off and talks about B when B isn't around.

I highly believe in the "Golden Rule": "Do to others what you would like to be done to you."

6453893
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Location: Australia

### Re: "Overstimulated" Discussion

Normally, when I do this, it is prompted by something I have actually said. Something like "I never listen to that song all the way through, it gets on my nerves and I end up skipping it." While the conversation goes on, I get enthralled by my own words (so douchey) and start to consider my listening habits as a function with a known input and an unknown quantity of unknown inputs.

ubel
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### Re: "Overstimulated" Discussion

People do talk about stupid shit, a lot. That is the inherent risk in going to a party, though, you never know if it will be good or crap unless you go.. So many that should have been bad, ended up good,.. it almost makes up for all the shoulda-been-good one's that ended up bad.

Sir-Taco
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### Re: "Overstimulated" Discussion

Ugh, I hate this when it happens. In fact, it just happened to me as of 30 minutes ago. Good party none the less, at least found someone to talk to through the static. Randall needs to get out of my head, seriously.
The world is a cold and dark place, so start fire.

iain_benson
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### Re: "Overstimulated" Discussion

Squid Tamer wrote:I highly believe in the "Golden Rule": "Do to others what you would like to be done to you."

I was brought up with a very similar rule - never say beind someone's back what you wouldn't say to their face.

KBF
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### Re: "Overstimulated" Discussion

Randall? Get the **** out of my head. "My favorite thing to do at parties is to talk judgmentally about those who aren't there."

I was going to blow off a party today.

Incompetent
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### Re: "Overstimulated" Discussion

One comment: the guy doesn't look overstimulated to me - he could only get overstimulated if he cared about what everyone was saying and was trying to keep up. He just looks... tired of the tedious gossip.

Other than that, get out of my head Randall!

Durindana
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### Re: "Overstimulated" Discussion

olgarithm wrote:I do EXACTLY this when in groups of four people or more. Except for me it's mentally reciting "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" or something, instead of math. When I forget lines, I just invent my own to fill in the gaps

Why yes, I AM one of those people who could entertain themselves for hours even when locked in an empty room, how did you guess?

I'm exactly like that as well, I can easily just zone out and think. I've had to train myself not to because it creeps out my friends and family; they all think I'm the kind of person who needs things to play with if I'm trying to zone out, not just think.

Man, I need this comic as a poster to hang on my wall, it's just a beautifully perfect comic.

Knightshire
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### Re: "Overstimulated" Discussion

alternate text:My favorite thing to do at parties is to talk judgementally about people who aren't there.

My favorite thing to do at parties is to talk judgmentally about people while pretending they aren't there.

shmuck
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### Re: "Overstimulated" Discussion

Who the hell is Jeff and why is everyone just hanging all over him?

Amarantha
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Location: Melbourne, Australia

### Re: "Overstimulated" Discussion

Aspergers for the win Forget parties; that's my life.

I love that there's more discussion of the actual maths involved than of the story in general.

Simplex
Posts: 33
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### Re: "Overstimulated" Discussion

awesome comic, i want a poster, seriously. Although, the only thing that bugged me about this comic was that what they were pondering was something so trivial, throwing a Millenium Prize problem in there would have made this comic absolutely perfect. Nevertheless, love it, i'm always zoning out and playing around with numbers, or debating philosophy with myself, so i can really relate to this comic.

thicknavyrain
ThinkGravyTrain
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### Re: "Overstimulated" Discussion

I sense a super-ironic situation coming up. My prom is in a couple of days and no doubt I will be around when a certain bitchfest happens, so my mind will be drawn back to this comic where I will zone out into a zone about a person who was zoning out (presumably) and I'll probably be caught in a metaphysical tangle. Luckily, I can always rely on the solution put forward in http://xkcd.com/248/

If this happens, the next party after THAT could be an awful, awful mess. Damn it.
RoadieRich wrote:Thicknavyrain is appointed Nex Artifex, Author of Death of the second FaiD Assassins' Guild.

thicknavyrain
ThinkGravyTrain
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### Re: "Overstimulated" Discussion

I sense a super-ironic situation coming up. My prom is in a couple of days and no doubt I will be around when a certain bitchfest happens, so my mind will be drawn back to this comic where I will zone out into a zone about a person who was zoning out (presumably) and I'll probably be caught in a metaphysical tangle. Luckily, I can always rely on the solution put forward in http://xkcd.com/248/

If this happens, the next party after THAT could be an awful, awful mess. Damn it.
RoadieRich wrote:Thicknavyrain is appointed Nex Artifex, Author of Death of the second FaiD Assassins' Guild.

juststrange
Posts: 296
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### Re: "Overstimulated" Discussion

This comic touches me in a way. Not because of the party. Because of the math. I feel so much less alone knowing someone else visualizes things they way I do at times. Having a very vivid mental picture ability, having close friends that can't really even daydream because they don't see anything is painful at times. I see things, I see math. I understood where he was going with it, and how elegant the solution was. I much prefer putting a physical idea, like size or volume, in with proofs like that. Just makes me so much more comfortable being able to see it.

Thank you good sir. And yes, I'd like a print.

drazen
Posts: 89
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### Re: "Overstimulated" Discussion

I always found that the best way to avoid conversations like this was to focus on activities rather than social gatherings - golf or geocaching are good ones. If you're not talking about what you're doing right then - where you're focused on solving a problem, and therefore at least thinking a little bit - the conversation tends to be less inane.

dennisw
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### Re: "Overstimulated" Discussion

Squid Tamer wrote:The comic's not funny, but very, very true.

I think that we all have seen this situation:

A talks about B when B isn't around.
B finds out, and gets pissed off and talks about A when A isn't around.
A finds out, and gets pissed off and talks about B when B isn't around.

I highly believe in the "Golden Rule": "Do to others what you would like to be done to you."

I believe in the Golden Ratio Rule: Do unto others 1.618 times as much as they would do unto you. φ upon you!
Try the Printifier for xkcd. You can now scale the comic between 50 and 150%.

I find these very useful: Common Errors in English Usage (web site) and Eats, Shoots & Leaves (book). You may, too.

e pluribus unum

Gamer am I
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### Re: "Overstimulated" Discussion

Troger64 wrote:i do this in history class
except it deals more with infinity
and division by zero

Get out of my head, Troger! Seriously, when I'm bored, I ponder the relationship between 0 and infinity all the time, as well as the relative sizes of different infinities.

Amarantha wrote:Aspergers for the win Forget parties; that's my life.

There must a direct link from my head to this thread. Although I do find parties to be fun occasionally, some of them just really get on my nerve. I usually don't mind the gossip (then again, I'm not exposed to it that much of it) but I have a certain group of friends that do nothing but state their own opinions throughout the whole party. Every single damn thing they say is some variation of, "Well I think..." and it gets really annoying after a few minute. They don't discuss the matters at hand, they don't debate, they don't do anything but say "I think." That's when I usually slip off physically, or if I can't do that, slip into my math or philosophy zone. My latest philosophical topic is whether... no, I'm not going to derail the thread. Must... resist... self-indulgent urge.
"Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people."
-Eleanor Roosevelt

starabo
Posts: 16
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### Re: "Overstimulated" Discussion

Hmm. I usually find the best way to get around these situations is to attempt to drink my own body-weight in beer.

Although it's not perhaps as intellectually stimulating as harmonic divergence, it's jolly good fun!

I suppose you could combine the two... ... ... Fibonacci with Jagermeister anyone?

Alzheimers
Posts: 63
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### Re: "Overstimulated" Discussion

John? Katie?

Randall must really be broken up about the Jon & Kate divorce.

Majuba
Posts: 12
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### Re: "Overstimulated" Discussion

shmuck wrote:Wait wait. Got me all worked up about this Jeff guy and then just trailed off.

Who the hell is Jeff and why is everyone just hanging all over him?

Did anyone else think that the comic was going to turn into a live demonstration of how a party logic puzzle would work out (X will only go if Y is there, Y will only go if there are 4 people, Z won't go if B or C is there...)

But seriously, who is this Jeff guy!?

irishnut
Posts: 43
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### Re: "Overstimulated" Discussion

For some reason i thought this was leading up to "It's my party and I'll prime if i want to"

Just me maybe, that is all.

GodShapedBullet
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### Re: "Overstimulated" Discussion

My favorite thing to do away from parties is to judgmentally make comics about them.

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### Re: "Overstimulated" Discussion

Man, I HATE people who talk judgmentally about others who aren't there! They're so petty and... not here... and I'm judging them... aww, crap.

Incidentally, does anyone remember who first said the quote "Great minds discuss ideas, medium minds discuss events, small minds discuss people"?
Let's have a fervent argument, mostly over semantics, where we all claim the burden of proof is on the other side!

Posts: 192
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### Re: "Overstimulated" Discussion

I don't have any of these problems because no one invites me to parties.
I... I didn't do it.
<- he did it, I swear

mheney
Posts: 12
Joined: Wed Apr 29, 2009 8:15 pm UTC

### Re: "Overstimulated" Discussion

Incompetent wrote:One comment: the guy doesn't look overstimulated to me - he could only get overstimulated if he cared about what everyone was saying and was trying to keep up. He just looks... tired of the tedious gossip.

Other than that, get out of my head Randall!

Not at all. Too much input - of any kind - can be overstimulating. Walking around in a mall can do it for me - if there are too many channels of input, you reach - then go beyond - a saturation point, and you need to disengage. Some people thrive on this stuff (Myers-Briggs "E"s); some are driven to distraction by it ("I"s). It's actually easier if there's something going on that you care about - it's easier to filter. But "all this noise and nothing for me" can be overload.

BlueEyedGreen
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### Re: "Overstimulated" Discussion

That scenario annoys me so much. Why are these people talking about such meaningless, shallow things? If you have a problem with something, talk to them about it, not to me! What are we, in high school? Instead of zoning out and thinking about math, maybe he could've suggested that there are better ways to spend our time than talking about people behind their backs.

Gamer am I
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### Re: "Overstimulated" Discussion

MartianInvader wrote:Incidentally, does anyone remember who first said the quote "Great minds discuss ideas, medium minds discuss events, small minds discuss people"?

"Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people."
-Eleanor Roosevelt

Eversist
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### Re: "Overstimulated" Discussion

This never happens to me at parties, because the people I generally hang out with are too nerdy to gossip. :B But I used to have a shallow group of friends in High School, so I can still relate.

Good comic.

Question:
How does one get "over stimulated" in a social setting? I've never experienced that feeling.

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### Re: "Overstimulated" Discussion

iain_benson wrote:I was brought up with a very similar rule - never say beind someone's back what you wouldn't say to their face.

I tried that for a while, but it turns out that the things I'll say to someone's face aren't things they want to hear, so it's not a very useful rule for me.

Elrieve
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### Re: "Overstimulated" Discussion

Truth:

A few weeks ago, we were at the bar. I had a thought. For, oh, the next 30 - 45 minutes, I was ignoring conversation, hunched over the bar, scribbling my ideas into my notepad.
Not only does research invade your every waking thought, but I'll be damned if inspiration doesn't hang in the background just waiting for you to attempt for freedom.
I'm reminded of http://www.xkcd.com/230/.

We are never free.

$i = \delta$

Mighty Jalapeno
Inne Juste 7 Dayes I Wille Make You A Hero!
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### Re: "Overstimulated" Discussion

New Top 10 Favorite XKCD Ever.

<3

ETA An experience from a bar:

Spoiler:
Also, I learned never to take novels (especially Snow Crash) into a pub. For the purposes of the following conversation, Brunette-With-A-Bad-Blond-Dye-Job-And-Horse-Face-Wearing-A-"Blondes-Don't-Pay-Cover"-Shirt will simply be known as 'Bim'.

Bim: *leaning in wayyy close over Crack-Eyed Boyfriend's Arm* Is that a book?
Me: *looks at book that has been closed on the bar for three hours, pauses to consider question* Yes.
Bim: You're reading a book, in a bar?
Me: I was.
Bim: Isn't that hard?
Me: *pauses again to consider it* It wasn't that hard at five o'clock.
BIm: It's not five o'clock!
Me: It was, at five o'clock.
Bim: Oh. *looks confused, downs another Jagebomb*

Feddlefew
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### Re: "Overstimulated" Discussion

Amarantha wrote:Aspergers for the win Forget parties; that's my life.

You have AS too?

I have a problem with people who I know being nice and inviting me to parties. I'm probably going to sound like a jerk saying this, but I really don't like it when they do. I feel obliged to show up, and then it's so loud and I can't understand what everyone's saying because the music and peoples voices and doors opening and closing and the air conditioning are all running together. So I go find stairs, because people don't hang out on stairs or make out, and zone out like they guy in the comic. I usually think about stories I want to write or something like that. Then some one inevitably finds me and asks me if I'm okay, so I tell them I'm taking a break and follow them back to the noise and stuff.

Fortuity, this only happens once or twice a year at the most, but I still feel really bad about it.

----------

In other words, get out of my head Mr. Munroe.
My spelling is abysmal. Just saying.

firinne
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### Re: "Overstimulated" Discussion

This is probably the incorrect reaction, but:

Awwwwwww.