Note to recruiters

Note to recruiters: We are quite aware that recruiters, interviewers, VCs and other professionals generally perform a Google Search before they interview someone, take a pitch from someone, et cetera. Please keep in mind that not everything put on the Internet must align directly to one's future career and/or one's future product portfolio. Sometimes, people do put things on the Internet just because. Just because. It may be out of their personal interests, which may have nothing to do with their professional interests. Or it may be for some other reason. Recruiters seem to have this wrong-headed notion that if somebody is not signalling their interests in a certain area online, then that means that they are not interested in that area at all. It is worth pointing out that economics pretty much underlies the areas of marketing, strategy, operations and finance. And this blog is about economics. With metta, let us. by all means, be reflective about this whole business of business. Also, see our post on "The Multi-faceted Identity Problem".

Thursday, October 22, 2015

The world's longest crossword clue - discussion - puzzle #1

Cut-and-paste of the discussion on the Cryptic Crossword Society Facebook Page.

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OLDER
Okay, I am going to make a play for the world's longest crossword clue.
1 Ac. No idea, no idea, no idea, no idea, no idea, no idea, no idea, no idea, no idea, no idea, no idea, no idea, <repeated a million times> (3,1,4).
Comments
Ganesh Nayak NOT A CLUE
LikeReply2 hrs
Anand Manikutty Once I reveal the answer, or someone solves it, it will be easy to see - at least for those familiar with mathematics - that this clue can be made as long as you want. In fact, it has cardinality equal to aleph-naught.
LikeReply2 hrsEdited
LikeReply2 hrs
Anand Manikutty I am claiming two World Records:

- the record for the world's longest crossword clue

- the record for the world's largest crossword puzzle.

Submitted my application to the Guiness Book of World Records.

Your application reference
151023023540wbcp

LikeReply1 hr
Ganesh Nayak Can you pl link to the largest crossword puzzle?
LikeReply40 mins
Anand Manikutty That would be Question 7. I just updated the blog.
LikeReply18 mins
Anand Manikutty
Write a reply...
SSv Avtaar How is it the longest clue? You can count 'a million times' literally and what is the purpose of repetition?
LikeReply1 hr
Anand Manikutty Fair question. 

As for answers, see my blog "Ask the Delphic Oracle":


http://askthedelphicoracle.blogspot.com/.../the-worlds...

I have confirmed with James Bonilla. This is a fair cryptic crossword clue.

LikeReply54 minsEdited
Anand Manikutty Can you clarify your question: "You can count 'a million times' literally and what is the purpose of repetition?"? It is ambiguous.
LikeReply52 minsEdited
SSv Avtaar Just 'no idea' means Not a Clue. What is the purpose of repetition?
LikeReply41 mins
Anand Manikutty I have answered your question on the blog. 

At the end of the day, please note that whether you agree with specific interpretations of crossword clues or not, the setter of clues always has much license in the way they set clues. Such license cannot b
e taken away from the clue setter - in other words, the benefit of doubt must always be given to the clue setter. The belief that "the benefit of doubt must always be given to the clue setter" (call it B1) is my ideological belief in the context of this discussion, and, for obvious reasons, I am not going to change my opinion on the matter of that particular belief.

LikeReply27 mins
Anand Manikutty ^^^^

Note that I am arguing in a particular way. The discussion itself is organized in a particular way. This asserts the main points I am making in this discussion while avoiding unnescessary detail.

LikeReply125 minsEdited
Ganesh Nayak NOT A CLUE (this time, about what you're talking smile emoticon )
LikeReply219 mins
Anand Manikutty @Ganesh Nayak - It's a lot of fancy mathematics. If you are familiar with context-free grammars, it would be possible to continue. Otherwise, I will let people (that is, mathematicians) familiar with context-free grammars discuss this further with me.
LikeReply17 mins
Anand Manikutty The basic clue and solve is as below.

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The clue is in two parts.

The first part is the phrase "No idea". This clues the final answer "Not a clue". The second part is the rest of the clue "no idea, no idea, ..., no idea". This part is -not- a clue. It is just a long sentence. At least, this is the case in our first reading (call this Reading R1) of this clue. This yields the answer "Not a clue". Thus, the phrase "Not a clue" is clued in two different ways. This satisfies the requirements for a cryptic crossword clue.
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LikeReply14 mins