In the 1940s, a UC Berkeley student named George Dantzig arrived late to his statistics class. On the blackboard were two math problems. Thinking they were the week’s homework, he quickly copied them down and quietly left.
What he didn’t realize was that these problems weren’t homework—they were two of the most famously unsolved problems in statistical theory.
Undeterred, Dantzig spent the next few days working on them. He submitted his “homework,” apologizing for being late. Weeks later, his professor knocked on his door, amazed. “George, do you realize what you’ve done?” The problems had puzzled experts for years—and Dantzig had solved them. Just like that.
His accidental solutions became part of his doctoral thesis and helped launch a career that transformed operations research and optimization. He went on to develop the Simplex algorithm, a tool now used in fields ranging from logistics to economics.
George Dantzig’s story reminds us that sometimes, the only thing standing between us and something incredible… is not knowing it’s supposed to be impossible.
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