#math nerds

[nikarodrigues]

Anathem

I just finished reading Anathem by Neal Stephenson, and it was hard. And I don't say this as a form of criticism, but as a satisfaction of overcoming a challenge. I don't believe I understood all the philosophical and scientific discussions - Dialog - throughout the reading; on the contrary, there were some things I gave up trying to understand in order to maintain my sanity and be able to move forward. This is a book that requires attention to detail, engagement and patience.

"People have a need to feel that they are part of some sustainable project. Something that will go on without them. It creates a feeling of stability. I believe that the need for that kind of stability is as basic and as desperate as some of the other, more obvious needs."

It's a thousand pages that mix alternative history, close encounters of the third kind, utopian fantasy of futuristic science fiction, multiple religions and philosophical treatise, all highly detailed and not at all obvious. But I'm happy to have finished this challenge and to have understood, at least in part, the Narrative.

Illustration by Patrick Arrasmith

“Nothing is more important than that you see and love the beauty that is right in front of you, or else you will have no defense against the ugliness that will hem you in and come at you in so many ways.”

Diagrams by Fraa Erasmas in Calca 1: Cutting the Cake

A book that combines levels of reality, space travel, monks, tiling, math nerds and a giant icosahedron in orbit.

[otter-chaos-violence]

*me totally not realizing that im that one kid who’s really good at math but in that way where they’re the worst on the math team because they just ended up on there because of random advanced calculus knowledge without going to high school yet*

[menacingpotato]

Math nerd for ever

It was just me an one other guy in a club where we "trained" for high school level math olympiads.

The problems that we manage to solve where a lot of fun

instrument or sport if applicable in tags. if you wish

[gaykarstaagforever]

Letting math nerds do whatever they want is how we crypto. So yeah. Don't put them in charge of stuff. Their default is apparently scammi g each-other out of money in the most confusing and Nature-destroying way possible.

[ms-anthrope-cellaneous]

question everything.

f(x)?

[weexploreanddiscover]

[goopgirlie813]

I hate to break it to you, but a social media poll is not an accurate reflection of the country. It is only a reflection of that social media site's userbase. And THAT is only true if the poll was shown to all users equally or if it was shown to a truly random selction of users. X is HEAVILY right leaning because Elon's behavior has caused many left leaning users to delete their accounts and move to other sites. Of course you would get an incredibly right-skewed result in those circumstances.

One of the fist things you learn in any statistics class –and one of the most emphasized– is how to identify misleading statistics. This is one of them because it has a biased sample. You cannot apply this sample to the nation as a whole, as you are trying to do. And that alone makes your "data" misleading.

Maybe you should sign up for a stats class. It would do you some good.

Bruh. He tried not to shake her hand. He didn't look at her. He didn't say her name. Harris did the opposite.

We've all worked with a dick like that who thinks he's better than you, a woman. Fuck that noise.

[gonnadosomethingwmylife]

peter burke is so funny bc he’s a completely normal guy except he’s been obsessed with two people to a point of stalking (his wife and the conman he chased for years) but it’s fine bc they’re just as obsessed with him 😭???

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

demanding a series in the same vein (heh, vein) as Dexter/Hannibal wherein a prolific serial killer plays cat & mouse with the police--except the serial killer in question is a preteen schoolgirl. this would make for compelling television due to the fact that middle school frequently causes girls to become deranged, and more media should reflect this

[waxcloth-din]

Rainy mornings in Blood Gulch.

[darkflameweaver]

2014 and 2024 i don't think there is 100 years in-between unless the term year has been changed and in that case i should go check the dictionary

2014 was a fucking trainwreck

[xyymath]

Things Math Professors Say

"The proof is trivial." (Oh, cool. Guess I’m just an idiot then.)

"Left as an exercise." (Translation: You’ll never solve this in a million years.)

"It’s obvious, really." (Sure, if you’re a demigod.)

"By inspection." (Stares harder at problem… still nothing.)

"For small values of epsilon." (How small? Subatomic? Microscopic? Vibes?)

"WLOG (Without Loss of Generality)." (Oh, we’re just assuming it doesn’t matter now? Alright.)

"Details omitted." (Because apparently, you don’t need to understand it.)

"By the usual argument." (Which you somehow don’t know because you weren’t born in 1702.)

"Assume the rest holds." (That’s some impressive optimism right there.)

"The usual abuse of notation." (Why does this feel like an emotional wound?)

"Almost surely correct." (But also possibly wrong? Cool, thanks for the clarity.)

"A non-rigorous approach." (I thought math was supposed to be precise?!)

"Assume it’s obvious." (Buddy, NOTHING about this is obvious.)

"The reader may verify." (No, the reader may CRY.)

"To the interested reader." (Guess I’m not interested enough, huh?)

"Well-behaved functions only." (We’re function-shaming now?)

"Obvious to the trained eye." (Guess I’ll never make it out of amateur league.)

"A trivial case analysis." (Trivial to WHO??)

"Integrate by parts, twice." (Bold of you to assume I got it the first time.)

"As you can clearly see." (Oh, I clearly see my FAILURE, alright.)

"It works in practice too." (Unlike me, who barely works at all.)

"Assume a spherical cow." (Are we doing math or abstract sculpture?)

"A standard result." (Not in my standards, pal.)

"We skip the tedious algebra." (No, no, please—I wanted to suffer MORE.)

"Assume non-zero solutions exist." (Okay, now we’re just assuming life works out.)

"The usual topology." (Bro, I don’t even know the unusual topology.)

"Finitely many cases left." (Just kidding, there’s 72.)

"By virtue of symmetry." (Virtue? I have none left.)

"Don’t worry about the constant." (The constant is probably my GPA dropping.)

"Assume continuity." (I’m assuming my brain is breaking.)

"Smooth functions only." (Guess I’ll leave, I’m clearly not smooth enough.)

"The simplest non-trivial case." (Simplest? NON-TRIVIAL? Pick a side!)

"Epsilon goes to zero." (Epsilon isn’t the only one losing it.)

"And the rest follows." (Where? Straight to my breakdown?)

[cfserkgk]

More on the Maomao Lahan modern siblings AU. I know that Lahan's hair is probably closer to black/grey since Maomao got her greenish hair from her mother, but hey, they're siblings, so Lahan's hair can be greenish too.

[packitandgo]

[penny-weiss]

If only this would last all year.

oh shit, it's 3/21/23, 32123, palindrome day

[nerdymemes]