I studied pure math all my academic life. Ended up specializing

Why the fuck would you study math if you don't like math

>>8768649
>I went into the field I loathe because edgy teenage reasons
Lmaoing @ u. Get a degree or training in something you enjoy, autismo.

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>>8768649
Jobs are like halting problems: you'll never know for sure if a particular job is 'degrading' or 'motivating' unless you try it out, and if you don't act until you have the 'perfect' job, you won't get anywhere at all.

I stopped at undergrad and got a "data scientist"-like job at a research institute that in practice amounts to doing 'trivial' tasks like optimizing code for non-programmers. It felt terrible until I realized one day that I was effectively getting paid to solve Project Euler problems that are not only intellectually challenging but yield immediate and concrete benefits. I've been well-motivated ever since.

> Ended up specializing in mathematical logic and algebra
> easier/trendy topics in applied math
I think I may have read more math on the job than I did in my curricular university environment (got into computation theory, logic, set/type/category theory etc.).
This may be my bias speaking, but I believe that discrete math is only going to become more important in the 'real' world, and businesses will become more discerning and more demanding for 'good' algorithms as they start to recognize the importance of fundamentals. Depending on your specialization, you could end up at the apex of the automation food pyramid, though I don't know if that's motivating for you or not.

>that image
That reminds me of a question I've had for a while: do you know if it's possible for the continuum to have cardinality [math]\aleph_\omega[/math] in ZF (not C)? The usual refutation makes use of Konig's theorem, so it seems like [math] 2^{\aleph_0} = \aleph_\omega[/math] could be consistent with ZF, but I haven't studied enough set theory to know how to construct the model.

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>>8768649
Aleph null
What is this, an infinity for ants?

>>8768649
Holy shit are you me ?

>seemed like the least degrading job I could get.

10/10 true story: this is reason I went to graduate school after I finished college

>>8769757
caring about what is degrading and what is not
instead of caring about the real key to happiness and fulfillment which is money
money can bring you the stability and comfort you need to just sit on a couch all day and think about math

>>8769763
To get that money you need a degrading job :^ )

>>8768649
you could've gone to engineering if you're the type who cares about money

>>8768649
What was your research area, OP?