impendia

15 ms·

151.
by impendia 3y ago
If you already program quite well, then I expect that you will find this software quite easy to learn. Sage, in particular, is built on top of Python. That doesn't mean the math you implement in this software will be easy! But I expect
152.
by impendia 3y ago
The gold standard, at least in the US, is Art of Problem Solving. https://artofproblemsolving.com/ For the most part it is not free, but there are some free resources https://artofproblemsolving.com/resource
153.
by impendia 3y ago
I agree. Personally, I would happily fly on a 737 MAX, flying is something that never caused me stress, and objectively the risks of injury or death are extremely low. I was once on a plane that caught fire over the Atlantic (!), but it was
154.
by impendia 3y ago
For group theory, I love Nathan Carter's Visual Group Theory -- very example and picture based. Rather than treating groups abstractly from the beginning, it treats them as "groups of actions" which in my opinion is the bes
155.
by impendia 3y ago
(math professor here) > I worry there are some dots I never connected This will always be true for anyone learning math in any circumstances. The beauty of the subject is that there is always more to unravel, always more connection
156.
Ask HN: "Check email/internet less often" resolution that is easy to keep?
1 points by impendia 3y ago|1 comments
157.
by impendia 3y ago
> This makes the PDF format quite inflexible for reading on a computer, with it being impossible to properly zoom or adjust the reading experience. As an academic researcher, generally speaking I also prefer PDF, and the inflexibility an
158.
by impendia 3y ago
> jobs that are not just bureaucratic garbage I would say that most of my job is very much not bureaucratic garbage. (I love research and teaching.) I just hope it stays that way.
159.
by impendia 3y ago
> what seems unnecessary to you is necessary for some other reason you’re not aware of. In this case this was more-or-less true. As my counterpart in HR explained, there are federal government rules mandating this bit of bureaucracy. Of
160.
by impendia 3y ago
> Fight bullshit and bureaucracy every time you see it and get other people to fight it too. I am curious about others' track record doing this. My employer (a university) recently started enforcing a certain rule making us fill out
161.
by impendia 3y ago
I think that US political culture has changed a lot recently. The 2020 murder of George Floyd saw massive protests, on a scale not seen a generation ago. Now, look for example to the recent pro-Palestinian protests at MIT -- MIT is not th
162.
by impendia 3y ago
I live in Columbia, SC -- a place that is surprisingly pedestrian-friendly but where there is little awareness of this. I walk to most places I go -- decidedly unusual here. I would actually defend right-on-red. Indeed, when I do drive, I g
163.
by impendia 3y ago
> Is there a philosopher who defends proximity? Larry Temkin did, when I took two of his ethics undergraduate courses in the 90s. It was a brief side point he was making, to contrast with arguments of the form "Do you believe you&#x
164.
by impendia 3y ago
From what I've read on HN, software certainly requires maintenance if you're hoping that others will buy or use what you've developed. That's the comparison I'm trying to make. > The problem is most people aren’t
165.
by impendia 3y ago
I am an academic mathematician, and I've noticed a huge culture difference between academia (at least in mathematics) and software development. In the software world, it seems to be universally accepted that everything will change, all
166.
by impendia 3y ago
Rural Japan is absolutely beautiful, I've travelled extensively there. The bullet trains are wonderful, but try going somewhere only the local trains go! If you like biking, the Shimanami Kaido is unsurpassed. https://www.ja
167.
by impendia 3y ago
This is amazing, one of the coolest things I have ever seen on HN. Thanks for doing this! My question: what kind of evidence/sources were helpful in figuring out what Tenochtitlan looked like?
168.
by impendia 3y ago
I'm a big fan of reading Joel Spolsky's essays. Usually when I should be grading papers, or something like that, and decide to procrastinate instead. Perhaps your interviewer is better at resisting procrastination than me? (I shou
169.
by impendia 3y ago
In mathematics, at least, papers and preprints are indeed widely considered to be the same thing. In practice, for people working in the field, they are. Math papers tend to be highly technical, read by other specialists in the field. When
170.
by impendia 3y ago
(PhD and math professor here) What do you want out of your PhD? If you want the initials after your name then great, but the only way to juggle a full time job with PhD (which itself is a full time job) is to half-ass both. Maybe this suits
171.
by impendia 3y ago
Apparently the Budapest and Warsaw airports have public pianos: https://pianos.pub/piano/9a5d3025 https://pianos.pub/piano/6b6c2d78 Given that the airports were named after Liszt and Chopin, respe
172.
by impendia 3y ago
I took beginner improv comedy lessons from BATS in San Francisco, and also saw several of their shows, and it was a revelation. The cardinal rule of improv is "Yes, And": If your partner exclaims "Oh no, our house is burning!
173.
by impendia 3y ago
Caveat: I would not recommend Why We Sleep for anyone suffering from insomnia. When I was dealing with sleep issues I tried reading it, hoping I'd learn something useful. But the book just kept hammering home how badly it screws you
174.
by impendia 3y ago
As a research mathematician, I find seminar talks to be like someone describing a backpacking trip in the wilderness. Someone might discuss how they planned, what they saw, what obstacles they encountered and how they resolved them. If you
175.
by impendia 3y ago
As a research mathematician, who knows the author (Ravi Vakil) personally -- This advice is for the audience, not the speaker. (There's lots of good advice out there on how to give a talk, too!) If Ravi gave a seminar talk, and everyon
176.
by impendia 3y ago
My attitude -- and I acknowledge that this comes from a place of privilege -- is that I don't care to share my calendar with my employer. I'm a university professor; there's always pressure to join this or that initiative, to
177.
by impendia 3y ago
> Teams feels like it is imposing a culture that seems antithetical to most of the organisations My employer, a large university, has moved to Microsoft, and I've definitely noticed this in MS's software. It feels like the sof
178.
by impendia 3y ago
I am a mathematician, and I always ignore requests to submit papers using a certain LaTeX template, or using any other journal-specific formatting. Judging by the papers I get to review, so do most other mathematicians. Once (for a Springer
179.
by impendia 3y ago
I sometimes listen to video game soundtracks while I work. Usually older stuff in my case: Legacy of the Wizard (NES), Shadowgate (NES), Final Fantasy IV/VI (SNES), etc. I don't have a particularly interesting story to share. The
180.
by impendia 3y ago
I went to Madison for grad school and I absolutely loved the place. I also grew up in Durham, NC which OP mentions so I can compare the two. Madison was absolutely beautiful and I loved the culture and the people I met. I also loved that it

More ›