This way or which way?

When I was little I used to scorn and point fingers at my sister for being a dreamer and not a do-er. I used to tell her how she was always planning, how she was always saying she wanted to do something but never really ended up doing it, or stopping in the middle and starting something else, procrastinating, digressing, hopping about, confused, resiliently so but confused… The funny thing is, she turned out to be the focused one with a mission in her head and the road to that mission all smoothly mapped out. Yes, there are bumps in the road but she is well-navigated.  

I find myself wondering whether I am a go-getter or not and If I am a go-getter, what have I ‘got’ uptil now. I have so many dreams, no, I have too many dreams, I want to do too many things at the same time so much so that I cannot possibly fit them all in together, so much so that I haven’t yet been able to realize even one of them. I get these out of the world ideas on what I want to do, then what I need to do pops in and tramples over the want screaming ‘think about the need, think about the need‘ but just then, another want jumps in, starting to prick at me like a strategically placed itch making me relent to the notion that I just might be confused. (which I am not).

I used to think that if you didn’t have a passion for anything, life would be useless. Passion for something, anything at all, even collecting stamps or watching birds (although that sounds awefully boring) gives your life an existential meaning like nothing else can. I have passions. Maybe too many. And instead of giving meaning to my life, they have turned it a bit topsy-turvy, swaying this-a-way and that-a-way, hypnotizing me, being a honest-to-God pain in the ass, if you may.

I cannot prioritize, I can not put them on a queue, I cannot choose one over another. I try everyday to make a connection between the many different roads that I want to take and sometimes, I really feel I am getting there but most times it is very difficult to find common grounds between so many, many things I would love to do- how narrower and narrower the ‘common space’ becomes as other ideas make entry. Lets just say you do not want to be in my head right now..

Maybe I need to separate love from like, dreams from fantasies, need from want, plausible from the less plausible and so on. Instead of freedom, maybe I need restrictions, limitations, boundaries, more boundaries.

But I still cannot help but think (read: dream) how perfect life would be if it were timeless. I could do anything: If not this, then this, or this or this; or even better, I could do this and this and this and this.

Creating something out of nothing…

I found this on the internet some time ago and its kind of funny and also an example of how things are not what they seem. Let me know if someone can figure out what is actually wrong with this ‘proof’.

0= 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + ….

  = (1-1) + (1-1) + (1-1) + (1-1) + …

  = 1 – 1 + 1 – 1 + 1 – 1 + 1 – 1 + …

  = 1 + (-1 + 1) + (-1 + 1) + (-1 + 1) + (-1 + 1) + …

  = 1 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + … =1

Pick your odd one

The last time I wrote a post, I promised my readers (real and imaginary both) that I would tell them just why I became a mathematics major but I realized, that kind of a thing can NOT be covered in a single post. I have however decided to postpone it a teeny bit, much to the chagrin of my less-procastinating-conscience.

But if someone’s listening, here is a little ‘Pick the odd one out’- it should be interesting.

Incase someone here is going to point out that this is not math; it is. Puzzles, logic, critical reasoning and on to the big words: decision analysis, game theory, optimization, constrained optimization, it is all math. It is still math if you are not computing anything or using a formula. It is still math if you are drawing lines and dots and joining them together (Ever heard of graph theory)… so yes. *insert self-important smirk here* While you solve this puzzle, I will sit down to make good on my promise.

Yes, I’m a mathematics major

Everyone, and I mean, everyone keeps asking me why I majored in mathematics. Some with an amused look on their face, some with a horrified look but there is always a look and it is almost always a rhetorical question. And before I can delve into a carefully articulate, well-thought out but still simple explanation, they discard me as either

a) weird or

b) confused or

c) having poor career planning skills or

d) boring or

e) some of the above or worse,

f) all of the above

Most of the people assume that mathematicians should be teaching- only teaching. Some actually wonder aloud what a mathematician can do that could be of any value in or contribution to real life (other than teaching i.e.)

So I thought I should write about it; clear some misconceptions, put some perspective out there, educate my fellow human beings who think math is a waste of space and is limited to hurried calculations and long, heavily symbolized formulas that are just a pain to learn; who are only too happy to scrape a passing grade without actually learning anything… 

Before I come back to this blog and get down to writing the real thing, let me leave you with a simple question: How do airlines figure out their routes- which flight should go to which location at which time with which staff?

Let me just tell you, it is not by trial and error.

Related articles

• Missing math (humasattars.wordpress.com)

Solve your derivative here

Before you can even start counting down!

The first in the series of my ‘mathematical’ musings is this wonderful widget which helps you solve a derivative, any derivative, to any degree. Just type in your problem and get going. You can also view the complete solution. All credits to Wolfram Research