o_19kdfsn0q18e31dfraas1esh19vta.pdf

notes to each page leave no step in the text, of moment, unsupplied, and hardly any material
difficulty of conception or reasoning unelucidated." By the time he had finished adding
improvements and filling in the blanks, the original book had ballooned from fifteen hundred pages
to 3,818 pages.
Now, it would never be enough for an INTJ merely to translate a work. No. Bowditch's Rational
instincts were not merely to translate and comment on the book, but also to make sure that the
cutting edge ideas of the day were included. Bowditch included up to date notes on any areas
where scientific progress had been made since the original Mécanique Céleste was published. One
person noted that his version of the book was not so much a translation as a new and improved
edition.
There was great rejoicing when Bowditch's version came out because it brought Laplace's ideas
down to the level of ordinary mathematician. One scholar praised:
"Every person who is acquainted with the original must be aware of the great number of steps in the
demonstrations which are left unsupplied, in many cases comprehending the entire processes which
connect the enunciations of the propositions with the conclusions; and the constant reference which is
made, both tacit and expressed, to results and principles, both analytical and mechanical, which are coextensive
with the entire range of mathematical science: but in Dr. Bowditch's very elaborate
Commentary every deficient step is supplied, every suppressed demonstration is introduced, every
reference explained and illustrated; and a work which the labors of an ordinary life could hardly master, is
rendered accessible to every reader who is acquainted with the principles of the differential and integral
calculus, and in possession of even an elementary knowledge of statical and dynamical principles."
One of the most interesting things about Bowditch's considerable mathematical skills is that he
picked it all up his spare time. Throughout his life, math was a hobby, never a job. In fact, it was
something he did on the side while working his real job. It started when was an apprentice at the
chandlery. Whenever there was a lull in business, he would pull out his books and slate and begin
cracking mathematical puzzles. He learned early on how to do this without interfering with
business:
Upon one occasion...a customer called and purchased a pair of hinges at a time when the young clerk was
deeply engaged in solving a problem in mathematics, which he thought he would finish before charging
the delivery of them upon the books, and when the problem was solved he forgot the matter altogether. In
a few days, the customer called again to pay for them... The books were examined and gave no account
of this purchase. The clerk upon being applied to, at once recollected the circumstance, and the reason of
his own forgetfulness, and from that day he made it an invariable rule to finish every matter of business
that he began, before undertaking any thing else.
One can only wonder what a modern HR department would say about the perils of doing
mathematics on the job. Note the Judger emphasis on beginning one thing before starting the next.
In similar circumstances, a Perceiver is more likely to themselves, "Oops, I'll do better next time" or
"I'll just scribble a note to myself so I won't forget" (then they forget the note). Generally, people
learn from the life lessons that correspond best with their own preexisting type-based beliefs. So
while a Perceiver will remember and store incidents that reinforce their adaptable flexibility, a
Judger will remember and store incidents that reinforce their planful structured approach towards
life. Bowditch followed the motto, "Finish what you start."
Becoming manager of the biggest companies in England didn't change Bowditch's habit of doing
mathematics in the workplace. Not that it seemed to hinder his job performance: "He was in the
midst of the abstractest science, and in the midst of the world's busiest interests, at the same time, --
not absorbed by the one, not disturbed by the other, seeing calmly through both." This will become