The famous mathematician Alexander Grothendieck is credited1 with saying “It’s when we fear making a mistake that the error which is inside of us becomes immoveable as a rock”, which I guess is a fancier way of saying “they who never make mistakes, never make anything”. Not really a motto for life, but a reminder that it is usually better to “have a go” and a very good guiding principle for aspiring codebreakers. It reminds me of another quote from the novel Enigma by Robert Harris. See if you can decipher it:
BM PTL ATKW ZHBGZ, UNM CXKBVAH WBWG”M FBGW. AX PTL MTDBGZ
TVMBHG, MATM PTL MAX IHBGM. BM PTL MAX LTFX TL VHWX-
UKXTDBGZ. AHPXOXK AHIXEXLL MAX LBMNTMBHG, MAX KNEX PTL
TEPTRL MH WH LHFXMABGZ. GH VKRIMHZKTF, TETG MNKBGZ NLXW
MH LTR, PTL XOXK LHEOXW UR LBFIER LMTKBGZ TM BM.
- Via Ian Leslie, by way of Benjamin Labatut’s biography of AG entitled “When We Cease To Understand The World“. Grothendieck had an extraordinary life and not one many could or should emulate, but he had an extraordinary influence on 20th C maths. Maybe we will say a bit more about him some time. ↩︎