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I am both a slow thinker and forgetful, but I've learned that those are not required skills for being good at maths. When I started my undergrad in maths (in t

I am both a slow thinker and forgetful, but I've learned that those are not required skills for being good at maths. When I started my undergrad in maths (in the UK) they gave us a day 1 test to check we could recall certain pre-requisites from school. I did poorly because I had forgotten all the tricks for those particular exam questions and was put in an additional "catch up" class. It was a real gut punch and I questioned whether I was cut out for maths at all. Fast-forward six years and I ended up with a PhD in pure maths from the same university. Turned out that when given the time to read and think at my own pace and allowed reference to books and my own notes I was pretty good at abstract math. Fast-forward another ~15 years and I'm a machine learning researcher for a SV company. The same issue rears it's head now as an inability to contribute usefully in meetings. I can't think fast enough to keep up and don't have anything useful to say when put on the spot. I much prefer to read written communication and take the time to formulate my responses. This is not the company culture though, so I do suffer problems with effective collaboration.

lordnacho 4y ago
This thread struck a nerve with me. As a kid I loved math, did all the math contest stuff, even won one at one point, skipped a year in math. I went to visit my old retired math teacher a couple of weeks ago, he's in his 80s. In school I never had a problem with speed or understanding, nor at university. But what hit me was the realization that "actual math" is probably not a load of little riddles. I often wondered how I'd ever solve something that someone hadn't contrived to have an elegant solution, something completely new and insightful that nobody had proven before. There's quite a leap from your tricky olympiad problem that you can find a good video for, and proofs of things in higher math. The other thing that struck me was that our current system destroys all appreciation for beauty. There's so many beautiful things in math, but we're forced to calculate, quickly. Especially in the engineering side I went into, it ended up becoming very mechanical.
filipmrc 4y ago
Your post made me create an account because I'm in a very similar situation. I was not "good" at math until later years of undergrad, where more abstract topics made me fall in love with it. I never could follow courses by going to class and had a much easier time just reading and taking notes. I'm now finishing a robotics PhD where I had the opportunity to do pretty well as a slow thinker by taking the time to understand and apply concepts from computational algebraic geometry. Currently I'm doing an ML research internship at a SV company and this problem of "slowness" at meetings is really resonating with me. I have a hard time following quick verbal communication, I just need the time to think in order to contribute. I don't know it's like I just phase out or forget what we were talking about. Have you found any useful techniques to do better in this type of environment? Is there any advice you would give your younger self?
- jebarker 4y ago
  Sorry for the delay, I had to think about my response... I think I know some good strategies, but I often fail to live by them still. Firstly, encourage written/async communication by setting a good example: - Keep up-to-date written descriptions of projects and progress in a wiki that is available to all colleagues. - Deliver high quality presentations on your research periodically. These don't have to be reserved for big public conferences. - Send regular but concise status update e-mails to a list of likely interested colleagues. Advertise your wiki here. - Send out edited meeting notes within a day or two of working meetings. General advice I'd give my younger self is pretty cliche, but to trust in my abilities and the value I can provide by working in ways that are comfortable to me. It's more important to take care of my long term mental health than it is to be in the spotlight or maximizing output all the time. Quality work speaks for itself and doesn't need to be continually delivered. Don't get sucked in to false urgency. Delivering a couple of genuinely useful things per year (and publicizing those appropriately) is enough to keep you in people's minds but give you the space to think deeply about the real work. I say this from a place of privilege though where, somehow, I've managed to accrue a large amount of experience and ended up in a secure research position. The company (and team) I work for give me a lot of autonomy and I have a very supportive manager. Applying computational algebraic geometry to robotics sounds fascinating. What are some highlight papers in that area?
pessimizer 4y ago
The modern world wants you to be spontaneously correct. To answer quickly and confidently. To be thoughtful without thinking about it.

lordnacho 4y ago

This thread struck a nerve with me. As a kid I loved math, did all the math contest stuff, even won one at one point, skipped a year in math. I went to visit my old retired math teacher a couple of weeks ago, he's in his 80s. In school I never had a problem with speed or understanding, nor at university. But what hit me was the realization that "actual math" is probably not a load of little riddles. I often wondered how I'd ever solve something that someone hadn't contrived to have an elegant solution, something completely new and insightful that nobody had proven before. There's quite a leap from your tricky olympiad problem that you can find a good video for, and proofs of things in higher math. The other thing that struck me was that our current system destroys all appreciation for beauty. There's so many beautiful things in math, but we're forced to calculate, quickly. Especially in the engineering side I went into, it ended up becoming very mechanical.

filipmrc 4y ago

Your post made me create an account because I'm in a very similar situation. I was not "good" at math until later years of undergrad, where more abstract topics made me fall in love with it. I never could follow courses by going to class and had a much easier time just reading and taking notes. I'm now finishing a robotics PhD where I had the opportunity to do pretty well as a slow thinker by taking the time to understand and apply concepts from computational algebraic geometry. Currently I'm doing an ML research internship at a SV company and this problem of "slowness" at meetings is really resonating with me. I have a hard time following quick verbal communication, I just need the time to think in order to contribute. I don't know it's like I just phase out or forget what we were talking about. Have you found any useful techniques to do better in this type of environment? Is there any advice you would give your younger self?

jebarker 4y ago
Sorry for the delay, I had to think about my response... I think I know some good strategies, but I often fail to live by them still. Firstly, encourage written/async communication by setting a good example: - Keep up-to-date written descriptions of projects and progress in a wiki that is available to all colleagues. - Deliver high quality presentations on your research periodically. These don't have to be reserved for big public conferences. - Send regular but concise status update e-mails to a list of likely interested colleagues. Advertise your wiki here. - Send out edited meeting notes within a day or two of working meetings. General advice I'd give my younger self is pretty cliche, but to trust in my abilities and the value I can provide by working in ways that are comfortable to me. It's more important to take care of my long term mental health than it is to be in the spotlight or maximizing output all the time. Quality work speaks for itself and doesn't need to be continually delivered. Don't get sucked in to false urgency. Delivering a couple of genuinely useful things per year (and publicizing those appropriately) is enough to keep you in people's minds but give you the space to think deeply about the real work. I say this from a place of privilege though where, somehow, I've managed to accrue a large amount of experience and ended up in a secure research position. The company (and team) I work for give me a lot of autonomy and I have a very supportive manager. Applying computational algebraic geometry to robotics sounds fascinating. What are some highlight papers in that area?

pessimizer 4y ago

The modern world wants you to be spontaneously correct. To answer quickly and confidently. To be thoughtful without thinking about it.