2012-03-16, 03:40 PM
ITT: People not understanding the difference between "hard" and "tedious."
If I told you I would give you a million dollars if you could play Rachmaninoff's 2nd Piano Concerto within a year (assuming you had never played the piano before) and you decided to do it, that would be hard.
If I told you I would give you a million dollars if you enumerated all the permutations of the numbers 1 through 1000 on paper by hand, and you decided to do it, that would just be tedious. Also probably impossible.
If I told you I would give you a million dollars if you could play Rachmaninoff's 2nd Piano Concerto within a year (assuming you had never played the piano before) and you decided to do it, that would be hard.
If I told you I would give you a million dollars if you enumerated all the permutations of the numbers 1 through 1000 on paper by hand, and you decided to do it, that would just be tedious. Also probably impossible.

