I broke my daily routine today and went back home around noon. It was all because the new UPS delivery agent responsible for my locale keeps a rather sporadic schedule. Yesterday he came by around half-past-four, when I was actually at home, but due to a malfunctioning doorbell, I missed him. Common sense would suggest that he may show up today around three or four in the afternoon, but based on past experiences, I am not taking my chances. He may well be at my house before ten in the morning.
In any case, I did not find out that I missed the first delivery attempt until I came to my office this morning. With things already planned for the day, I decided to stay in my office till noon. Fortunately, the good lady of fortune is smiling at me today, as I did not find one of those irksome UPS InfoNotice stuck to the door again.
I decided to stakeout here the window by the main entrance to the house where I can clearly monitor the UPS agent’s every move. To make the best of my time, I brought with me an expository paper (Gross’s “Heegner points and Representation Theory“) with me, as well as my usual blue and red Pilot Precise V5 pens to mark down my comments and questions.
Somewhat to my surprise, the man in the brown uniform came by shortly past 1PM, and I made it in time to get my precious packages. Does the arrival of such an unlikely phenomenon mean that my luck is about to turn for the better? With my renewed faith in humanity and UPS, I returned to my office.
Filed under: Mathematics, Quest Log, Random Thoughts | Tags: learning, Mathematics, working
I spent the last two days reviewing and delving deeper into some details on the construction of Galois representation from modular forms. It was a refreshing getaway from the occasional frustrations and disappointments one experiences while conducting new research. Learning new things in mathematics is not as much a challenge nowadays as it was when I began. I suppose I can take pride and comfort in the knowledge that I have grown in mathematical maturity. Everyone needs to return to his or her comfort zone once in awhile to refuel and rekindle the desire and aspiration for improvement, and learning stuff that is well-known and widely accepted is my safe harbor and my favorite retreat.
On the other hand, spending too much time learning new ideas may not be a good thing. It is not just the time commitment, but learning everything that comes my way tends to dilute my focus and make me extremely scattered-brained. So much so that it breeds “mathematical greed”, something that I was seriously plagued by during the early years of my graduate career. I was literally spending every waking moment trying to do something math related, and it was an unsustainable lifestyle that I now learned to shy away from on most days.
For better or worse, I am pleased and grateful that I can still stay away from the internet for a good number of hours and focus on learning things. Even though my merits as a mathematician mostly depend on my ability to conduct new research, I still take great joy and comfort in learning things.
