Whether it's true or not is beside the point. Shakespeare's plays aren't "true", but they yet have lessons to teach. One can, of course, miss the lesson, but that doesn't mean that it isn't there.
ME ME ME TEACHER, PICK ME TO ANSWER. The mountain is 70.5 feet high, however we must remind ourselves that it may not be equally sloped on all sides, and the sheep probably can't climb 90 degrees vertically. So let us use a general formula to solve for the time, depending on which slope angle the sheep choose to tackle the mountain. sin angle = Height/Slope Distance. Sigma dV/dt = One foot / minute assuming dv2/dt = constant. Slope Distance = Height/sin x Integral of dv/dt from time t = 0 to t1 = Slope Distance. = Height/sin angle then delta t is solved to be = ( Height/ sin angle ) / 1 foot / minute = ( 70.5/ sin angle ) /1
The lesson in your anecdote is : there's more than one way to skin a cat, but only obstinate assholes go out of their way to pick the least efficient ways of doing it. But I'm sure that's not what the anecdote fabricator had in mind.
Depends on how much fun one has in thinking. The lesson, of course, is in the last sentence. And it is particularly applicable to trading, since so many are so OCD about finding someone to "follow", i.e., finding someone who has "the answer". But if one studies the market itself, he eventually finds -- if he doesn't go broke first -- that there are many roads to profit.
Sorry but this anecdote fails in its intended purpose. The students were taught what a barometer was and how to use it to measure altitudes. There was no process of discovery. What the smartass demonstrated was that he was as smart as a caveman ("Me use rope!"), not that he was as smart as someone who deserved a passing grade in physics. Nobody said his answer was 'wrong' in the sense that it wouldn't work, but he was handed a barometer, not an extremely long rope and a dead weight. Thinking also means using common sense. He was being tested on class material, and he blew it. Me Use Rope is grade-school thinking, not physics-class thinking. I'm all for alternate solutions but when the best one is readily available as in this case, do the math.
The last sentence is precisely the problem. It strikes me as some rightbot/libertarian add-on that is nowhere in the original presentation: http://www.snopes.com/college/exam/barometer.asp As I said, the story fails because using the barometer as intended is provably the best answer. There's more than one way to skin a cat, but when someone has gone through the trouble to teach the absolute best way to skin a cat, a student subsequently demonstrating how many less efficient ways he knows of doing so isn't demonstrating creativity, he's just being an obstinate fool. I'm surprised this urban legend has the respect it gets. To me, it fails on multiple levels.
Balls of gold, can I trouble your crystal ball for a second answer? Is the market zero sum? Please explain.