Theory vs. Practice

I swear that Randall (creator of xkcd) has been reading the some of my mailing lists recently, between him and Scott Adams (creator of Dilbert), it seems that we have spies in our midst.  

I hear arguments about definitions. People trade competing papers. Some argue that such and such theory isn't widely regarded. And what's been standardized isn't right (even though it's been balloted five times in the past 5/6 years), and even though its been widely implemented.  Listening through it all, I'm reminded of my favorite Richard Feynman story about teaching.

And while they are all on that top layer, debating how it works, I'm headed down below trying to make it work -- in sunny Chicago in January, where the high today is 9 degrees F.

Let me know when that freshman lecture is ready.