Read Lauren Ipsum: A Story About Computer Science and Other Improbable Things for Free Online Page A

YOU ARE THE
MOST INTERESTING VISITOR TO U SERLAND IN A LONG TIME .
B UT YOU HAVE MANY LABORS AND SETBACKS AHEAD IF YOU KEEP DOING WHAT YOU ARE
DOING . R EMEMBER, THE MAP IS NOT THE TERRITORY!
    Y OUR H UMBLE S ERVANT ,
    C OLONEL T RAPP
    “Labors and setbacks? The map is not the territory? What does that even mean?”
Laurie asked.
    “I once heard of a king who wanted to make a perfect map of his territory,” said
Xor.
    “Why did he want to do that?”
    “Kings always want something silly, like a book about everything or a chariot with no
weak parts,” he said. “This king decided that he wanted a perfect map as large as his
kingdom. That way, the royal cartographers could fit everything in, down to the
last pebble and flower. It took seven whole years to finish it. But it was a disaster!”
    “Why? What happened?” Laurie asked.
    “As a map, it didn’t work very well. To measure the distance between two places,
you had to travel exactly that distance,” the lizard explained. “By that time you were
already there.”
    “Where did they even put such a big map?”
    “That was the other thing. King Borges had only one kingdom, so there was nowhere to put
the map except right where it was. It was a huge bother, what with the map sitting on top of
people’s houses, and none of the crops could grow. The people finally overthrew the king and
tore up the map. They say you can still see huge pieces of paper blowing around in the
desert.”

Chapter 8. More Than One Way to Do It

    Permute was a small village not far from Symbol. Hugh Rustic’s shop was easy to find.
Its sign was even bigger and fancier than Tinker’s.

    “Hello, Mister Rustic?” Laurie called as she stepped inside the shop.
“Mister Tinker back in Symbol owes me an algorithm, and he said I should talk to you about
it.”
    Rustic was a tall, loud, messy-looking man with a big red beard. He didn’t look anything
like the elegant Eponymous or the neat and proper Tinker.

    He certainly didn’t look how Laurie thought a Composer should look! But Tinker had
recommended him, so Laurie handed him the IOU.
    “I’m, um, trying to find the shortest path through all the towns. Can you help
me?”
    “Wonderful! Interesting!” Rustic said. “Tinker sent you to the right place,
miss. Improbable we can do right away. Impossible, by Tuesday at the latest.”
    “But if it’s impossible—” Laurie began.
    “Only improbable,” corrected Rustic.
    “If it’s improbable , how do you do it?”
    “By shifting your point of view,” said Rustic. “Instead of looking for an
answer that fits your problem, you imagine an answer and look for a problem to
fit it.”
    “But you can’t just change the problem, can you?”
    “Why, of course you can! Worrying about the problem is a waste of time! What you really
want is an answer, right?”
    “Maybe, but I don’t understand how,” Laurie said.
    “How do you buy the best tomato?” he said.
    “Well, I . . . what?”
    “Let’s say you’re at the market. You want the best, most perfect tomato. But
to find the best tomato, you’d have to compare them all, right?
You’d look at each and every one, turn it around, maybe squeeze it a bit. For every tomato in
the whole market.”
    “No one does that!” said Laurie. “Well, old Mrs. Harris does do that. But my mom says she’s a little batty. I just pick a good
one.”
    “See? You already know how to do things the Hugh Rustic way. You don’t waste your
time looking for the best tomato when there are plenty that are Good
Enough.”
    “So instead of trying to find the shortest path through all of the
towns in Userland,” Laurie said, “we look for one that’s short enough ?”
    “Why not?” asked Rustic. “Out of all the zippity-million paths, I bet there
are a whole lot that are pretty short. You need to find only one of them, and
that’s much easier.”
    Rustic pulled out a large map and placed it on the counter.
    “Here is where we are,” he said,