Thread replies: 8
Thread images: 2
Thread images: 2
File: quote-guided-only-by-their-feeling-for-symmetry-simplicity-and-generality-creative-mathematicians-e-t-bell-324399.jpg (68KB, 850x400px) Image search:
[Google]
68KB, 850x400px
Recently I've been reading biographies of famous Mathematicians and one thing that made me really envy them was how they were part of a math circle during their undergraduated days until their death. Hilbert, as a Professor, used to call students to walks while discussing mathematics, philosophy and more things. He used to call people to his house and every day students went and come from his house any time. Russian professor had math circles too, they helped each other, developed their mathematicians and helped them go beyond their limits. The students that time were really into mathematics(and physics and philosophy for some) and they had fun discussing mathematics with friends and professors. They were really part of something, you could read about Leibniz and how he used to trade letters with famous mathematician of his time. Same for Courant, Poincaré, Leibniz, Hilbert, Cantor, Dedekind....
Now is quite sad. A professor only have office hours for an student, after that time the student can only ask questions during the professor's lecture. It feels like there is not the same feeling as 'professor and student' like in URSS and Europe back then, no time for discussing mathematics like you read about famous mathematicians of the past. I can't find people to discuss mathematics even in my course(which is Pure Mathematics) because they only want to talk about non-related things(games for the most part). I really wish I could be born during that time if I'd be part of a math circle, that I'd be able to discuss mathematics with people who knows and love mathematics. It seems fun to trade letters with famous people of your field, to meet up with people and discuss mathematics, to discuss problems and solving them(related to mathematics), to explain what they are researching, to conjecture and prove things, to study together and help each other, to do mathematics. So /sci/, why does study mathematics back then seems way more fun than now?
>>
I guess I just want to discuss mathematics with people, friends, whatever. How fun it would be to be part of Göttigen circle. I can understand why Perelman give up Mathematics after seeing that mathematics is not as social as he expected it to be(though in his case there was something more that forced him give up in mathematics).
>>
Because we have the internet.
Yet I believe that is only half the truth, I think there is a certain social pressure on people nowadays to have a "healthy work/life balance". I think back then there was not social stigma associated with going full autism, so many people just went for it.
>>
>>8642635
>implying Perelman isn't still doing math in his basement
I wouldn't be surprised if he had already prooved the existence and smothness of the Navier-Stokes equation.
>>
>>8642632
I just want someone with whom I can improve with together and have a lot of fun learning new things.
>>
>>8642819
That too, anon. It's what I loved the most in those books.
>>
>>8642632
There's circles like that, it's just that they never invite you because you're a fucking brainlet.
>>
File: father2.jpg (49KB, 395x600px) Image search:
[Google]
49KB, 395x600px
>>8642644
Nobody is keeping you from "going full autism". There is zero shame in dedicating your time into a skill that even can make you money, like math. And you can even get laid teaching girl programming now (I do that).
If I find people to talk mathematics to - people "at my level", I talk with them and enjoy it.
OP, the present is not as bad as you make it out to be. The books are also always a scewed picture of the past.
So point me at your math discussion thread, btw.
Thread posts: 8
Thread images: 2
Thread images: 2