What Rose Petals Teach Us about Induction

Richard Hamming famously used to ask his colleagues at Bell Labs this question: &ldquo;What is the most important problem in your field, and why aren&rsquo;t you working on it?&rdquo; To which they probably replied, &ldquo;Look, Dick, it&rsquo;s eight-thirty in the morning. I haven&rsquo;t even had my coffee yet. Who starts a conversation like that?