What do grad students in math do all day? (2013)

by hkmaxproon 4/14/2025, 6:40 AMwith 1 comments

by gsf_emergency_2on 4/14/2025, 1:35 PM

trying to explain a vacuum cleaner to someone who has never seen one

if you don't specify that someone is actually yourself, it makes grad students seem too bourgeois.*

*Meshing Rainer Weiss' dictum[0] with Anglo-Saxon dictum [1] we have the post-PG (unintentional extremist[2]) dictum:

   Make it possible or make it accessible.
In 4-letter-words

  Make it real or show it's easy
Usually, both the reading and writing of papers violate these dictums. (The trying to explain to yourself in babytalk, day after day, is naturally kosher.)

[0] there are only 2 games worth playing: the opening-game and the end-game

[1] do something worth writing about or write something worth reading

[2] https://note.com/tokyojack/n/n64147f0ff2f3