Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

Every time Pythagoras is brought up, I can't help but think of the cult of Pythagoras as well.

One of the tenants is the refutation of beans. For what reason, I have no idea. I've always found it strange that a mind so capable was also equally capable of such folly.




[flagged]


The same cult found a proof that sqrt(2) is irrational, and kept it hidden because they believed natural numbers and their ratio's to be everything. Then some dude Hippasus found the same proof and talked about it openly. The pythagorean cult murdered him for it.

(I checked wikipedia [1] and apparently, historians disagree on whether this is true)

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippasus


Apparently Pythagoras had a following (a cult) and one of the rules was not eating beans: https://classicalwisdom.com/cult-of-pythagoras/

Or maybe that meant not voting, since the Greeks used colored beans for voting.


Perhaps he didn't want them eating the beans and losing their vote.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: