4 ms·

I did math in the wrong order. I first was "exposed to it" as an engineer undergrad - didn't care at all (just wanted to code) and barely passed eng. math. Aft

I did math in the wrong order. I first was "exposed to it" as an engineer undergrad - didn't care at all (just wanted to code) and barely passed eng. math. After working for two years, went back and did undergrad physics courses (including math for phys) and started to "get it". Then went on to a PhD in general relativity - which is a LOT of math. I went back to software and most of it leaked away. I am now trying to get it back (20 years later) - as I resurrect a Maple package for GR, grtensor, which I co-wrote as part of my PhD. Curved space is a beautiful thing. Penrose's recent book reminded me of his wonderful "The Road to Reality: - which is a great tour of math leading into physics.

bosie 10y ago
What's your path to getting back into math after 20 years?
- agumonkey 10y ago
  And if I may add, how often did you think about math ? daily ? monthly ?
FourSigma 10y ago
I am curious about your path back to math as well.
gajomi 10y ago
+1 on hearing about hearing more about this story and current project with grtensor. Seems like you've had an interesting career trajectory.
- musgravepeter 10y ago
  (long) Thanks for the interest. It is quite an odd career trajectory. I was torn about physics vs engineering when I went into undergrad - and the advice I got was one led to more certain income - so engineering it was. However, I always felt I had missed out on "cool stuff". After working for two years, my wife decided to go back to grad school in Kingston (2 hours away) - after a year of long-distance marriage and frugal living, I quit and took a year of random physics courses (basically third year physics). I managed to get a summer job with a GR prof, who wanted me to write some Maple code - this became an an early version of grtensor. At this point I had finagled a spot in the Master's program at Queen's, but my wife was accepted into a Phd at McGill/Montreal - so we went there. I took another term of undergrad courses (4th year phys) and found a prof who needed a student who could code - and I was accepted in the Master's program at McGill doing experimental particle physics linked to an experiment at Fermilab. After a year at McGill, spouse decided her supervisor was not doing the work she thought and she wanted to head back to Queen's. I scrambled to finish my MSc and then went to Queen's to start a PhD in general relativity. In a weird "Forest Gump" moment - the time at McGill attached to the CDF experiment at Fermilab means that my name is one of the 500+ names on the paper announcing the discovery of the top quark. At Queen's I studied GR and astrophysics, leveraging my coding ability into making tools GR researchers use to this day. After the PhD, we had a young family and didn't like the look of the post-doc grind and the constant moving/low-pay that it entailed, so went off into the high-tech world. I've spent 20+ years in hi-tech s/w. Joined yet another startup two years ago. It's still really fun. Thinking about physics is also really fun - so I try and keep a stream of physics-y side projects on the go. Maple has since evolved and GRTensorII has gotten stale. One prof has been staying on an old version of Maple since he relies on GRTensor - worrying that when his computer dies he would have to stop using it. I figured it was time for a fix up. This is what I am doing now. I recently took a "sabbatical week" to jump start the exercise. Hopefully it will be public by the end of the year. There is some background on how I have approached the math in a blog post I wrote last year: http://nbodyphysics.com/blog/2015/02/28/learn-physics-with-this-one-trick/ http://nbodyphysics.com/blog/2015/02/28/learn-physics-with-t... For me the take away is something Scott Adams once wrote about. Either 1. Become the best at one specific thing. 2. Become very good (top 25%) at two or more things. (http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2007/07/career-advice.html http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2007/07/care...) I chose (2) and it allows me to wander through both engineering and physics.

bosie 10y ago

What's your path to getting back into math after 20 years?

agumonkey 10y ago
And if I may add, how often did you think about math ? daily ? monthly ?

FourSigma 10y ago

I am curious about your path back to math as well.

gajomi 10y ago

+1 on hearing about hearing more about this story and current project with grtensor. Seems like you've had an interesting career trajectory.

musgravepeter 10y ago
(long) Thanks for the interest. It is quite an odd career trajectory. I was torn about physics vs engineering when I went into undergrad - and the advice I got was one led to more certain income - so engineering it was. However, I always felt I had missed out on "cool stuff". After working for two years, my wife decided to go back to grad school in Kingston (2 hours away) - after a year of long-distance marriage and frugal living, I quit and took a year of random physics courses (basically third year physics). I managed to get a summer job with a GR prof, who wanted me to write some Maple code - this became an an early version of grtensor. At this point I had finagled a spot in the Master's program at Queen's, but my wife was accepted into a Phd at McGill/Montreal - so we went there. I took another term of undergrad courses (4th year phys) and found a prof who needed a student who could code - and I was accepted in the Master's program at McGill doing experimental particle physics linked to an experiment at Fermilab. After a year at McGill, spouse decided her supervisor was not doing the work she thought and she wanted to head back to Queen's. I scrambled to finish my MSc and then went to Queen's to start a PhD in general relativity. In a weird "Forest Gump" moment - the time at McGill attached to the CDF experiment at Fermilab means that my name is one of the 500+ names on the paper announcing the discovery of the top quark. At Queen's I studied GR and astrophysics, leveraging my coding ability into making tools GR researchers use to this day. After the PhD, we had a young family and didn't like the look of the post-doc grind and the constant moving/low-pay that it entailed, so went off into the high-tech world. I've spent 20+ years in hi-tech s/w. Joined yet another startup two years ago. It's still really fun. Thinking about physics is also really fun - so I try and keep a stream of physics-y side projects on the go. Maple has since evolved and GRTensorII has gotten stale. One prof has been staying on an old version of Maple since he relies on GRTensor - worrying that when his computer dies he would have to stop using it. I figured it was time for a fix up. This is what I am doing now. I recently took a "sabbatical week" to jump start the exercise. Hopefully it will be public by the end of the year. There is some background on how I have approached the math in a blog post I wrote last year: http://nbodyphysics.com/blog/2015/02/28/learn-physics-with-this-one-trick/ http://nbodyphysics.com/blog/2015/02/28/learn-physics-with-t... For me the take away is something Scott Adams once wrote about. Either 1. Become the best at one specific thing. 2. Become very good (top 25%) at two or more things. (http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2007/07/career-advice.html http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2007/07/care...) I chose (2) and it allows me to wander through both engineering and physics.