In the 1978 hit song "The gambler", Kenny Rogers sings about card game strategy where one needs to know that, without looking (keeping in the game) it may be necessary to fold. The song hit #1 on the country charts and became Kenny Rogers signature song.

One action is to look and see if something needs done and then do it.

Another action is to look and see that something does not need done and then do not do it.

A third action, at the heart of computer science, is to know somehow that one can ignore something and not even look at it - which takes resources such as time and space.

Much time is spent in computer science education studying algorithms and data structures that allow one to do this.

A simple example is that of binary search of a list (e.g., represented as an array structure). If a list is in order (whatever order is defined and present), then if one picks an item in the middle and compares it to the value desired to be found (if it is in the list) then about half the list can now be ignored and one need not even look at that half of the list.

This continues in a recursive divide and conquer way until one either finds that element in the list or determines that the item is not in the list.

The method of binary search is used in the game of "Twenty questions". Twenty well-asked questions, where each divides the problem space into one part in one million. That is, 2²⁰ ≈ 1,000,000.

This can be seen in bit terms in the following

2¹⁰ = 1024 = 2*2*2*2*2*2*2*2*2*2
2²⁰ = 2¹⁰ * 2¹⁰ = 1024*1014 = 1,048,576 ≈ 1,000,000

The field of statistics is based on the idea that one needs only look at a small part of the population (via a random sample) to determine properties of the entire population (to a high degree of certainty).

Those who do not understand this about statistics are tempted to look at every part of the population.

Those who do not understand this about computer science are tempted to always look at everything, again and again, to determine the desired course of action to take.

An interesting sign is the sign in braille that says, "Do not look at this". Obviously, someone who is blind could not actually look at it and someone who can see (and read) has already looked at it in order to understand the message.

More: The viscous cycle of catch-22 situations

• Not addressing something is addressing it.
• No policy is a policy.
• Not making a decision to a decision.
• Not making a value judgment is a value judgment.

An identity element for an operation is a value that when applied to an element using that operation returns that element unchanged.

• The value 0 (zero) is the identity element for addition.
• The value 1 (one) is the identity element for multiplication.
• The empty string is the identity element for string concatenation.

Since an identity element returns the value unchanged, it has the effect of doing nothing.

The "offended" and "weak" is not in some Greek manuscripts.