The Quest for Clarity

      In the heart of West Egg, Jay Gatsby's luxurious mansion stood tall, its brightness illuminating the night sky.  It was a Saturday evening, his mansion filled with music and laughter.  Meanwhile, in the ancient city of Phrygia, King Midas, the ruler blessed with the power to turn everything he touched into gold, suffered the loss of his daughter and pondered the loneliness of his existence.       One evening, a shimmering portal opens in front of Midas, connecting his world to the thriving and prosperous Roaring' Twenties.  Intrigued, King Midas stepped through, his touch transforming the portal itself into gold.  He found himself in Gatsby's mansion, mesmerized by the spectacle of wealth and excess.  King Midas suddenly caught sight of Gatsby's luxurious Rolls Royce.  Marveled by this mysterious piece of advanced technology, his finger made contact with the metal of the car, before he realized what he has done....

      Earlier this week, we brought up the story of King Midas and his golden touch, and I realized that his personality was a lot more like the glorious and mystical character of Gatsby than I had initially thought.  An interesting concept however is that these characters both pursue the gift that the other character already has - Gatsby has wealth but pursues the love of Daisy while King Midas has a loving daughter but pursues wealth and gold.  Their pursuits of what the other possesses highlight a profound irony in their stories.     King Midas is illustrated as a wealthy ruler, but his greed leaves him frustrated with his dream of excessive power and wealth.  When granted his wish, he believes he has attained ultimate power.  However, this power quickly isolates him from his daughter and his family, and he only realizes it after his daughter turns into a spiritless golden statue.  The irony of the gift of the golden touch is tha...

     In a world driven by logic and clarity, mysteries often evoke a sense of discomfort, leading us to perceive them through a negative lens: you never know what's going to happen next.  Why then would Nick Carraway, the narrator of The Great Gatsby, perceive Gatsby as "gorgeous" when he is one of the most mysterious but well-known characters?     Mysteries spark curiosity, encouraging us to explore the unknown and expand our understanding. The Mars rover, whose name is literally "Curiosity", helped us find signs of potential life on Mars through the discovery of key molecules.  Landing such an advanced piece of technology on Mars is easier said than done, but this illustrates how powerful the will of self-discovery can help lead to a broader perspective on life.      Acknowledging mysteries humbles us, reminding us of the vastness of the universe and the limits of our understanding.  The humbling nature of mystery opens the door t...

Section 2.1: Describing Location in a Distribution      So, in this chapter, you learned some cool tricks to figure out where stuff lands on a mountain of numbers.  There are two main ways you cooked: percentiles and this wild thing called a z-score.     Percentiles show you how much of the portion of land is below a certain height.  It's like marking off a chunk of it from the bottom.  You can use a dope cumulative relative frequency graph to visualize percentiles or values on the mountain if you like.       The z-score is the G.O.A.T at comparing numbers.  They tell you how far a number is from the average, but they use this fancy lingo called standard deviations.  They basically create their own unit of standard deviations and use it to compare numbers from different types of mountains - they put it on a unit we all can dig.       You also learned how to describe the shape, center, and length of...