老. (char) 1. Old. 子. (char) 1. Child --- > _If the Tau is not laughed at, It is not the Eternal Tau._ > -老子 --- > _Tao gives birth to one._ > _One gives birth to two._ > _Two gives birth to three._ > _Solve for Tao._ > -Chinese Proverb --- > _You want to get to the top of the cliff. But that's not what you focus on immediately. You focus on the next ledge just beyond your reach, because you need to do one clever thing to get up there. And then, once you get there, you do it again. A lot of this is rather boring and not very glamorous. But you can't jump cliffs in a single bound._ > -Tao --- > _When I was growing up, I knew I wanted to be a mathematician, but I had no idea what that entailed._ > -同上[^1] --- ## τ ![[tau-topos-theory-the-suffering-was-the-point.png]] --- > _I have deliberately been as vague as possible (except in §9.3) about the features of the set theory which I am using, since it really doesn’t matter. Topos theory is an elementary theory, and its main theorems are not一or ought not to be一dependent on recondite axioms of set theory. (In fact I am a fully paid-up member of the Mathematicians' Liberation Movement founded by J. H. Conway._ > -P.T. Johnstone, Topos Theory --- --- [^1]: Chinese for Ibid.