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You've reminded me of an older Quora post about: What do grad students in math do all day? Do they just sit at their desk and think? [1] Here are excerpts: """
by dpflan 3y ago
You've reminded me of an older Quora post about: What do grad students in math do all day? Do they just sit at their desk and think? [1] Here are excerpts:
"""
The main issue is that, by the time you get to the frontiers of math, the words to describe the concepts don't really exist yet. Communicating these ideas is a bit like trying to explain a vacuum cleaner to someone who has never seen one, except you're only allowed to use words that are four letters long or shorter.
...
This [research] goes on for several years, and finally you write a thesis about how if you turn a vacuum cleaner upside-down and submerge the top end in water, you can make bubbles!
Your thesis committee is unsure of how this could ever be useful, but it seems pretty cool and bubbles are pretty, so they think that maybe something useful could come out of it eventually. Maybe.
And, indeed, you are lucky! After a hundred years or so, your idea (along with a bunch of other ideas) leads to the development of aquarium air pumps, an essential tool in the rapidly growing field of research on artificial goldfish habitats. Yay!
"""
- [1.] https://www.quora.com/What-do-grad-students-in-math-do-all-day-Do-they-just-sit-at-their-desk-and-think https://www.quora.com/What-do-grad-students-in-math-do-all-d...
- boygobbo 3y agoA vacuum cleaner described in 'words that are four letters long or shorter': a tool to suck dirt and dust into a bag ;)
- tobr 3y agoHm, challenge accepted: It uses a fan and a hose to suck up dust. You use it to get rid of dirt in your home. The dirt ends up in a bag. Now and then you must get a new bag, when the old one is full. If you have some tiny item or two that lies in the way of the dust, you will want to put that away, or else it can get lost in the bag.
- dpflan 3y agoNice, I think you’re close to making it have a rhyme scheme… next challenge?
- laszlokorte 3y agoBut can I use it to rub the fleeb? [1] [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMJk4y9NGvE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMJk4y9NGvE
- orls 3y agoThis reminds me of [Up-Goer Five](https://xkcd.com/1133/ https://xkcd.com/1133/) - similar vibe but a different constraint (most common thousand words only)
- ColinWright 3y ago>> What do grad students in math do all day? > ... by the time you get to the frontiers of math, the words to describe the concepts don't really exist yet. A friend of mine[0] once said that the act of doing research in math is the act of inventing a language in which you can talk about the problem. Once you have that, the solution tends to come. But inventing the right language is really, really hard. This might explain why so many research mathematicians end up married to (or in long term relationships with) linguists. His wife is a PhD in Spanish and linguistics, my wife's first degree is in French and linguistics, and I know perhaps three or four others in my immediate circle. Anecdata, of course. [0] Andrew Lipson: https://www.andrewlipson.com/ https://www.andrewlipson.com/
- dpflan 3y agoThat makes sense as math is a fascinating exploration of the human mind and its ability to handle abstractions; and what is happening is one's mind even when not mathematical can be difficult to explain. A linguist's rigorous approach to language and understanding of language seems to pair well with a need to explain one's thoughts. Thank you for sharing Andrew Lipson's site, digging his LEGO sculptures, for example: https://www.andrewlipson.com/mathlego.htm https://www.andrewlipson.com/mathlego.htm