Had a dream last night and strange it was indeed. I was living back in Greece in Pytheromies' time. I had learned that he was the greatest mathematician mind in the world, Greece was the world to Greeks back then everyone else was considered barbarians, but I regress. In this dream I wanted to learn what Pytheromies had to teach.
I could not retain the great man himself but I did obtain the services of his best student who said that he would teach me all he had learned from Pytheromies for a price. I was ecstatic, ran home and told my wife and two daughters the good news. And for the next few years every morning I would kiss my wife and daughters goodbye and go off to learn math.
For more than 3 years this was the routine, I would say goodbye to my family in the morning, spent the day sitting at the master's feet, and then return to the arms of my wife at night. I learned algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and calculus, never mind that the last had not yet been invented, it is a dream after all. Finally I had learned all the master had to teach, and when I left home to go home that afternoon I learned something else.
When I got home the house was empty, no wife and daughters to great me, no one to tell my good news, to brag about knowing all the math there was to know. I search for them and was told that my master's servants had come and taken them early in the morning and sold them as slaves to pay my debt for his services. Then I remember that he had said that he would teach me for a price, and I had neglected to find out what that price would be. Alas, sad was me, for the rest of my life I wonder around a bum, a bum with all the knowledge about mathematics that existed in my head, but could not bring a number into my head without falling into great despondency.
While this was just a dream I had, it does point to the need to find out the true price of the things you buy before committing yourself to the deal. Remember that everything you buy into come with a price called consequences. Some you expect and some are unexpected, and it is sometimes the unexpected consequences that cost you the most.
