Mathematicians Who Can Only Generalize or Specialize

A mathematician who can only generalise is like a monkey who can only climb UP a tree. ... And a mathematician who can only specialise is like a monkey who can only climb DOWN a tree. In fact neither the up monkey nor the down monkey is a viable creature. A real monkey must find food and escape his enemies and so must be able to incessantly climb up and down. A real mathematician must be able to generalise and specialise. ... There is, I think, a moral for the teacher. A teacher of traditional mathematics is in danger of becoming a down monkey, and a teacher of modern mathematics an up monkey. The down teacher dishing out one routine problem after another may never get off the ground, never attain any general idea. and the up teacher dishing out one definition after the other may never climb down from his verbiage, may never get down to solid ground, to something of tangible interest for his pupils.

Notes:

They are like monkeys that can only climb either up or down a tree, nonviable.

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David Hilbert (0.658442): dbpedia | freebase | yago

 A Story With A Moral
Periodicals>Magazine Article:  Pólya, George (1973), A Story With A Moral, Mathematical Gazette (Jun 1973), 57, No. 400, 86-87, (Jun 1973), 57, No. 400, 86-87, Retrieved on 2012-06-21