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A Chen Dushek Production
The path of Denny
"Master, how can I bend the space around me to my will?" the young student asks Zen Chen.Zen Chen replies, "Why would you want to be able to bend space?"
"So I can be like you master," the student responds with admiration.
"Well, what have you tried so far?" the master inquires of his student Denny.
"I've tried everything I could think of and then repeated each of them three times just to be sure," the student eagerly responds, sensing the master is ready to offer the student true wisdom.
"Well how many different things did you try?" the master asks.
"I tried four different ways to bend space master," the student responds.
"So how many total attempts is that?" Zen Chen inquires.
"Well master, I tried each of the four different ways three times, so that would be a total of twelve times, because if I had tried four different ways and then attempted each of those four different ways three times, then I add four plus four plus four, which is three attempts times the four ways," the student responds.
"Let me make sure I understand you my child. You tried one thing. It failed. You tried something else. That failed. Then when you ran out of ideas, which you had four ideas of how to approach the task, you then started again with the first idea, which you already suspected would be unsuccessful from the results of the previous attempt and continued until all four attempts were tried three times for a total of twelve. Is that correct?" The master administers a harsh judgmental gaze as if scorning and mocking simultaneously with his brow, sounds unnecessary, as the student's posture curls until he is bowing in embarrassment.
Which answer would you give if you were Denny?
"No master," the students replies, unsure if he is right.
"Yes master," the student replies, confident in his decision.