The biggest advantage fountain pens have is physics.
Ink flow in a fountain pen is via capillary action (touch nib to paper, ink flows), as opposed to a ballpoint pen where you have to apply a small constant amount of downward force for the ball to have enough friction against the paper for the ball to roll. This might not seem like a big deal, but if you're writing a lot, it means that your wrist & hand will get much more fatigued with a ballpoint over time.
Put another way, ballpoints have absolute advantage over fountain pens, except for "sitting down and writing a lot."
It sounds like you missed the point of what parent was trying to say. As one of those people who was in the exact situation the parent mentioned, your concise and incrementally more correct explanation wouldn't have helped me when I had the same question.
Yeah, I think you're correct here. I'll clarify what I meant:
The title statement is "How electrons find the path of least resistance", and what I replied to said, "They take all paths weighted by resistance".
The underlying question remains: how do the electrons "know" what the weights are? When a new charge carrier enters the maze, how does it "know" that "turning left" will be an easier trip than "turning right"? How do most of them end up taking the express lane?
I guess the original comment wasn't meant to answer this question, but rather rephrase it to be a more accurate question in the first place. I misread it as an answer.
> The underlying question remains: how do the electrons "know" what the weights are? When a new charge carrier enters the maze, how does it "know" that "turning left" will be an easier trip than "turning right"? How do most of them end up taking the express lane?
Question: when you observe water flowing on a flat surface do you see the water droplets freely separating from each other all over the surface until it's kind of evenly distributed or do you find the droplets tend to kind of follow or stick to one another?
For example, imagine you have nice trickling stream of water and that stream comes near a droplet, does the droplet join the stream or does the stream miss the droplet?
Does the new "charge" in the maze join with an existing stream or is it starting with a neutral maze and has to find the exit again?
It doesn't need to know that it needs to turn left or right, it just needs to go with the lazier option which happens to be the less resistant one.
From my point of view, finding the path of least resistance does require some kind of "knowing", but taking every path doesn't take some kind of "knowing".
The electrons just push. Like you can push something across a surface with varied friction. Or you can try to walk down paths with different amounts of obstructions. And when they get through faster, they make room for more faster.
Why resistance exists and varies is a valid question, but it's not one that everyone will have. Some people need that explanation, but some people just need "It takes every path with equal vigor."
So the original comment was an answer to the question. Not the answer everyone needs, but a valid answer for many people.
Also a nice comparison is how lightning does actually find a single path, because the current flow makes the air it touches more conductive in an aggressive feedback loop.
Officially, it's the Saudi National Bank that is getting burned. But, in an absolute monarchy, you might as well say it's Crown Prince MBS because there's no distinction.
There's a reason why Forbes does not even rank royals' wealth. It's a futile journey trying to decipher what belongs to the king and what belongs to the state. But, note that the king must spend a lot on social services (free healthcare, free education (both local and foreign) in Saudi Arabia, etc., to please his countrymen, lest they revolt.
"The law doesn't have this exact word in it and therefore none of the observed effects of the law actually exist." is not the airtight defense you may think it is.
So.... let's say that was even possible, and you did that.
You pay: $20,000 in $some_coin (ignoring gas fees for the moment)
1/100 of annual royalties is $1,142, taxable at your marginal rate (say 20%), so $913 free-and-clear.
Even without doing discounted cash-flow magic, that gets you to an annual 4.5% annual rate of return. Not great, not terrible.
BUT, you're doing this all in NFT-land, which means either you hold it (in a cold wallet, ready to be shown once the next royalty agency asks who owns this stuff), some other entity holds it (and you trust them and pay their fees), and no one has stolen your metaphorical apes over the next 21 years, which is just what it would take to make back the investment. Also, making the double-bank-shot bet that courts will recognize NFTs as proof of ownership, and that the NFT itself does not become taxable property, as a security.
Short of some kind of presumably inherent joy in interacting with a smart contract, I'm really not sure what you intend to gain, here.
