7-9 VIII 2021

i'm conducting an experiment on how to study the theory effectively

there are i guess two main ways:

(1) read and take notes simultaneously

(2) read first, then take notes

so for the first one, there is the risk of going passive with the note-taking, writing down the symbols without focusing on their meaning. for the second one there is the risk of zoning out and just reading the symbols, again, losing their meaning

the problem seems to be that the processing of sheer symbols and processing their meanings might be disjoint and their natural tendency seems to be so

from my recent actions i noticed that (1) doesn't work for me as effectively as (2)

it might be that when i don't plan to write something down right away, i am more inclined to remember these things short-term as "i won't be able to check it later so remember it now in order to understand what comes next", and when i'm taking notes simultaneously it's "i have it written down anyway so i can take a peek anytime"

so now i'm testing the strategy of

read → try to understand the idea and memorize the elements → why all the elements are important → understand the construction in more detail and write it down

this is how i imagine my mind working:

it means that at first i start to remember the elements as points of its own but simultaneously my brain builds its idea on how they interact and then i notice the inner structure of how the elements are connected with each other in less obvious ways

this idea is cool to visualize how i imagine my thinking, because it shows how learning the topic reduces possible permutations and paths. i have this problem that when i start learning something new i see so many possibilities of what can happen to the elements that i can't discern between crucial and additional stuff. in order to use the knowledge i need to provide some structure

thus the main goal of optimized learning is to take the leap from "i memorized the elements" to "i understand their structure" as fast as possible

and so the strategy (2) might be more effective as it forces the memorization of the elements first and then it is easier to provide structure for them, where i would be defining order on something that's already in my mind. whereas (1) strikes at memorization and structuring simultaneously, it is too difficult for me to see at first in which direction the topic is going, i must know the next point

in a few days i will focus on how "the point" can be defined in this and how to characterize the connections

honestly tho this is some sorta pseudo graph theory and pseudo topology and i don't believe this could be as straightforward. otherwise nobody would ever post any study tips and we would have a field of study called "learning optimazation", this would be too big to go unnoticed. i wish it was so easy to just know how brain works and be able to build such an algorithm that would optimize the desired processes lmao

i wish i was a σ-field or something

side not is, i love this kind of thinking and i love to analyze how the thinking works, especially when it can me algorithmized or structured in some ways. the moment i see something is structured or algorithmic it becomes interesting to me

some more animation: how secant-teenager becomes tangent-adult

also! it illustrates a well-known inequality of a differentiable convex function and its tangents & the monotony of slopes

are you a girl?

I am, but I thought that was obvious given that I have a picture of me in my icon.

" 'They' isn't singular!" Oh yeah? Show me its multiplicative inverse matrix then.

1 X 2022

new month huh

yesterday the commutative algebra teacher sent out the first homework assignment. you know, fuck the holiday, we need that grind

I have a week to solve it but I started yesterday as I was so excited

we need to prove some elementary properties of commutative unitary rings and I am enjoying it, I completed a half of the exercises so far. I can tell that the intuition acquired from studying module theory is paying off. many of the requested properties are the special cases of what I encountered during my module venture, so I feel like I understand them quite well. the problem I come across is how to write it down in a rigorous way, but I guess this is why we're supposed to do those exercises

I just got home from the math camp, it was so exhausting. I am not used to being around people all the time, so I my tolerance for interactions is low. I'm glad I went there tho, because I gained some teaching experience – my lecture, choosing contest problems and then grading the solutions

my university offers jobs as graders, older students can make some extra money checking homeworks of younger ones. the requirement is to have a decent GPA, which I don't have so I'm afraid they won't accept me. I don't know how decent exactly tho, so I'm going to try. in particular I might get bonus points for my extracurricular activities, giving talks at conferences and the grading I did at the camp. I'm so done with being poor, I hope I get in. otherwise I might start looking for some programming jobs, not for this academic year but in general, to find out what I could do at all

a few days ago I found a book that I wish I had found sooner: Vector Analysis, Klaus Janich

these are some of the chapters I needed a few months ago for my analysis course. the book is written like a novel and contains many interesting examples. on the bright side there are chapters about riemannian manifolds and other stuff that I haven't yet had an opportunity to study, so I plan to skim through the topics I already know and stay longer at those new to me

well, the sememster starts on tuesday so I don't have much time for that book, but as a sidequest it seems just right

Real’s Math Ask Meme

What math classes have you taken?

What math classes did you do best in?

What math classes did you like the most?

What math classes did you do worst in?

Are there areas of math that you enjoy? What are they?

Why do you learn math?

What do you like about math?

Least favorite notation you’ve ever seen?

Do you have any favorite theorems?

Better yet, do you have any least favorite theorems?

Tell me a funny math story.

Who actually invented calculus?

Do you have any stories of Mathematical failure you’d like to share?

Do you think you’re good at math? Do you expect more from yourself?

Do other people think you’re good at math?

Do you know anyone who doesn’t think they’re good at math but you look up to anyway? Do you think they are?

Are there any great female Mathematicians (living or dead) you would give a shout-out to?

Can you share a good math problem you’ve solved recently?

How did you solve it?

Can you share any problem solving tips?

Have you ever taken a competitive exam?

Do you have any friends on Tumblr that also do math?

Will P=NP? Why or why not?

Do you feel the riemann zeta function has any non-trivial zeroes off the ½ line?

Who is your favorite Mathematician?

Who is your least favorite Mathematician?

Do you know any good math jokes?

You’re at the club and Andrew Wiles proves your girl’s last theorem. WYD?

You’re at the club and Grigori Perlman brushes his gorgeous locks of hair to the side and then proves your girl’s conjecture. WYD?

Who is/was the most attractive Mathematician, living or dead? (And why is it Grigori Perlman?)

Can you share a math pickup line?

Can you share many math pickup lines?

Can you keep delivering math pickup lines until my pants dissapear?

Have you ever dated a Mathematician?

Would you date someone who dislikes math?

Would you date someone who’s better than you at math?

Have you ever used math in a novel or entertaining way?

Have you learned any math on your own recently?

When’s the last time you computed something without a calculator?

What’s the silliest Mathematical mistake you’ve ever made?

Which is better named? The Chicken McNugget theorem? Or the Hairy Ball theorem?

Is it really the answer to life, the universe, and everything? Was it the answer on an exam ever? If not, did you put it down anyway to be a wise-ass?

Did you ever fail a math class?

Is math a challenge for you?

Are you a Formalist, Logicist, or Platonist?

Are you close with a math professor?

Just how big is a big number?

Has math changed you?

What’s your favorite number system? Integers? Reals? Rationals? Hyper-reals? Surreals? Complex? Natural numbers?

How do you feel about Norman Wildberger?

Favorite casual math book?

Do you have favorite math textbooks? If so, what are they?

Do you collect anything that is math-related?

Do you have a shrine Terence Tao in your bedroom? If not, where is it?

Where is your most favorite place to do math?

Do you have a favorite sequence? Is it in the OEIS?

What inspired you to do math?

Do you have any favorite/cool math websites you’d like to share?

Can you reccomend any online resources for math?

What’s you favorite number? (Wise-ass answers allowed)

Does 6 really *deserve* to be called a perfect number? What the h*ck did it ever do?

Are there any non-interesting numbers?

How many grains of sand are in a heap of sand?

What’s something your followers don’t know that you’d be willing to share?

Have you ever tried to figure out the prime factors of your phone number?

If yes to 65, what are they? If no, will you let me figure them out for you? 😉

Do you have any math tatoos?

Do you want any math tatoos?

Wanna test my theory that symmetry makes everything more fun?

Do you like Mathematical paradoxes?

👀

Are you a fan of algorithms? If so, which are your favorite?

Can you program? What languages do you know?

4-5 VIII 2021

did much topo and walked

sleep: weird. 5 hours. woke up at 3:30, at least right now it seems i might finally fix my circadian rythm

concentration: not good. too little sleep

phone time: good

almost done with operations on topo spaces and did some measure theory today. i love it so much, it's so new and yet so intuitive

tomorrow gonna take a peek at some art probably and possibly finish the operations on topo spaces, hoping to jump right into connected spaces and maybe do some more measure theory. kinda gave up with multivar calc boring af lol

meanwhile typical conversations between my friends:

– so what do you do in math?

– differential equations

– ugh I always hated differential equations

– you?

– general topology

– ugh I always hated topology

The curse of a mathematician is to work in a disliked field

imo euclidean geometry kinda sucks, but if we mean geometry in a more general sense then algebraic geometry is the one

I've decided to start a fight

anyways geometry sucks algebra best math

lmao wtf people seriously say shit like "math is homophobic"? because queer people can't do math… a priori?? isn't it inherently homophobic to claim that homosexuality implies being bad at math? this is the most unhinged thing I've seen this week

It's so funny to me when people reblog math posts on this site and say shit like "this is homophobic" "this is an attack on queer people" like hello this is tumblr. OP is queer. Like we've got a HANDFUL of cishets here on mathblr but most of us are queer. Because it's tumblr. And everyone is queer on tumblr. If you see math on this site, a queer person probably put it there. Stfu about "gays can't do math" if it's on tumblr, gays can do it, that's why it's on tumblr.

And of course there is also a large and brilliant and beloved queer math community off of tumblr but I just think it's extra funny when people don't notice it ON TUMBLR.

Alan Turing didn't kick the Nazis' collective ass laying foundations for the field of computing and then go on to also lay foundations for the field of biomathematics, Leonardo Da Vinci didn't give us fundamental physical and mathematical diagrams used in engineering well beyond his time, Moon Duchin doesn't study the math of fair redistricting, Chad Topaz and Jude Higdon don't analyze criminal sentencing disparities, et cetera et cetera, for y'all to call math homophobic and an attack on the queer community.