Edit: I am currently testing out a LaTeX-based mathematical presentation engine, and some equations may or may not show up correctly.

Sometimes the most unfathomable things are not the problems presented to you, but indeed your answers to them. Why is it that some people are more prone to doing stupid mistakes than others? It always seems like there are some who never make any mistakes. While this might be true of my Half-Windsor knots or of my impeccable bookcase (or even my CD collection), I often question why it is that the human brain is, err —well—, so stupid.

After all, one only needs to look at the prestigious figures of the past that managed to carve their names in history to see just how stupid we are (ohh yes!). After all, their numbers are scarce within our populous species…

The best example of what is expressed in this post should be a mundane representation of our failure to fully master ourselves. Take, for example, a problem from my last mathematics exam:

To which I promptly answer…

If , then .

What is it that makes us do so many mistakes? What exactly is wrong with our innate cognitive process that we have to be forgetful, that we lack focus or that we are so logically incompetent? I would sure like to know, because that mistake brought me down from an A+ to an A-. Not acceptable at all when you think my laptop running Maple 12 could have gotten a perfect grade on this. We question the mere existence of intelligence in robotic contraptions, yet we are so painfully aware of our own handicap.

I don’t know about you, but I need a Redbull.