Ancient greek Quote by Dan Ariely
““Zero has had a long history. The Babylonians invented the concept of zero; the ancient Greeks debated it in lofty terms (how could something be nothing?); the ancient Indian scholar Pingala paired Zero with the numeral 1 to get double digits; and both the Mayans and the Romans made Zero a part of their numeral systems. But Zero finally found its place around AD 498, when the Indian astronomer Aryabhatta sat up in bed one morning and exclaimed, " Sthanam sthanam dasa gunam " — which translates, roughly as, "place to place in ten times in value". With that, the idea of decimal based place value notion was born. Now Zero was on a roll: It spread to the Arab world, where it flourished; crossed the Iberian Peninsula to Europe (thanks to the Spanish Moors); got some tweaking from the Italians; and eventually sailed the Atlantic to the New World, where zero ultimately found plenty of employment (together with the digit 1) in a place called Silicon Valley.””
About This Quote
Source Book: “Predictably Irrational”, 2008, discussing the history of zero
Zero’s development spanned cultures, eventually enabling modern decimal systems and digital technology.
In simple terms: Zero enabled modern math and tech.
Understand zero’s historical impact.
Themes
Mood
Type
When to use this quote
- education curricula
- software development
- financial modeling
- design thinking
Key Concepts
Questions to Reflect On
- How does zero influence today’s technology?
- What lessons does its diffusion teach about innovation?
Zero’s abstract nature can be conceptually challenging.