impendia

81 ms·

781.
by impendia 13y ago
At Harvard it really is easy to stop worrying, if you have an open mind. As a mathematician, I know excellent academics who narrowly missed getting tenured at MIT and Princeton. They were highly in demand, and are now happily working at o
782.
by impendia 13y ago
To any grad student about to give his or her first invited lecture, I would recommend McCall Smith's The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs : http://www.amazon.com/The-Finer-Points-Sausage-Dogs/dp/14000... In the
783.
by impendia 13y ago
> Who benefits from a college being better than others? Everyone. Basically, everyone wants to be surrounded by smarter, harder-working, and more talented people. > do the researchers get published more easily? No, this doesn't m
784.
by impendia 13y ago
I'm a college professor. I'll try to say a little something. Colleges certainly aren't altruistic. For the most part colleges, and even more so, research universities, want to be "better than each other". The compet
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by impendia 13y ago
I recommend exercise. Best to combine this with starting something new. Take up jogging, swimming, martial arts, yoga, ultimate --- whatever sounds interesting that you've never tried before.
786.
by impendia 13y ago
> 1996 United States "dream team" 1994 :)
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by impendia 13y ago
I don't agree with Brooks's viewpoint, but I would be curious to read how HN readers might refute (or support) his argument.
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The Solitary Leaker(nytimes.com)
63 points by impendia 13y ago|53 comments
789.
by impendia 13y ago
Umm... what? Theoretical mathematicians are always trying to reduce complicated concepts to geometry, or to other intuitive and more easily understood phenomena.
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by impendia 13y ago
I feel like Facebook already does most of what you are looking for, and indeed this is why it's popular. What are the important ways in which FB is not what you want?
791.
by impendia 13y ago
It's my notes I regret throwing out. The books, I could replace on Amazon or eBay if I chose.
792.
by impendia 13y ago
And, yet, it is overwhelmingly to your advantage to believe that you are attractive. Confidence counts for more than actual physical beauty. This study provides an interesting example of a situation where it is in your rational interest to
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by impendia 13y ago
> I think as a society we'd benefit from celebrating the successes (and even the failures) of "late-bloomers" like Zhang a lot more. What do you mean? It seems like Zhang's success is being fully recognized and celebrated, by mathematic
794.
by impendia 13y ago
> Are there really people who spend their time working on these things that aren't professional mathematicians and who submit flawed papers to math journals? Yes, as well as people who are professional mathematicians (usually not well k
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by impendia 13y ago
I am a professional mathematician and number theorist, who has studied work closely related to Zhang's. I had never heard before of an older (40+) mathematician, who has done essentially no meaningful work in the subject before, and has v
796.
by impendia 13y ago
No. The average size of a prime gap around numbers of size N is ln(N). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_number_theorem A rough analogy of this prime gaps work is the following. Imagine that you throw infinitely many darts at a dartboard
797.
by impendia 13y ago
Harald Helfgott would have a bone to pick with "getting close". :) http://arxiv.org/abs/1305.2897
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by impendia 14y ago
I have not. Do you know of any particular ones which you recommend?
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Are there good HN-like forums for discussing sexism, racism, and the like?
4 points by impendia 14y ago|3 comments
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by impendia 14y ago
+1: I wish everyone who spoke up in disagreement with me did so in such a manner! This is why I read HN. I think you're right that things have gotten much better. I'm in academic math, and I hear horror stories from 40 years ago. Women tell
801.
by impendia 14y ago
> I for one think the whole "sexism in technology" is an issue that isn't worth sparing time to think about. A rigorous, peer reviewed study [1] demonstrated the existence of sexism in orchestra auditions: more women were selected with
802.
by impendia 14y ago
I've always been a bit reflexively anti-business, having read horror stories about Monsanto, some of the large banks, and other unethically run (IMHO) corporations. However, I've noticed that many HN readers are extremely pro-business, whil
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by impendia 14y ago
A conversation I had with Friend 1, a successful business owner, and Friend 2, a less successful business owner: Friend 1: Have you tried getting some positive reviews on the internet? People really trust them, it really helps to drive busi
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by impendia 14y ago
I strongly disagree with your argument that internet sales taxes fall disproportionately on the poor. I suspect that it's inaccurate, and even if it is accurate, it seems fair to impose the same sales taxes on the same goods, without regard
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by impendia 14y ago
> it's a wonder common sense has held out as long as it has. > I don't want a level playing field. If you explicitly advocate that some businesses should be treated more favorably than others with respect to taxation, even if they a
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by impendia 14y ago
Not driving is cool (which I'm not sure it was twenty years ago). Not owning a car is a point of pride for many people I met -- certainly in San Francisco and Madison but also in less likely places.
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by impendia 14y ago
> American was not supplying food or hotel vouchers - all those people are coming out of pocket I guess. Why are they not subject to a class action lawsuit? The problems rather obviously seem to be American's fault. Seems like some ente
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by impendia 14y ago
Richard Florida's fascinating Rise of the Creative Class purports to explain this. In short, startup culture heavily correlates with acceptance and welcoming of diverse lifestyles, and distaste for conformity and conventions --- things wh
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by impendia 14y ago
I would recommend developing some hobbies, and joining some groups and clubs. I was involved in my university's outdoors club, in karate club, and in several types of social dance. I recommend all of these, or any other activity that piques
810.
by impendia 14y ago
You might have a tough time getting into a top graduate program. But there are plenty of reasonably good graduate programs which are not quite as selective. Self study probably won't help you get into good programs initially, but if you g

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