The Will to Be Myself

[ericjherboso]

The class was an utter disappointment. I had had such high hopes for that class. Every time a new semester begins, I always find myself optimistic that this time I will find the class that turns everything around for me. Every time, I fool myself into believing that I've finally reached that point in my academic career where I will find a class

Comments

[kevinsparakeet]

This is a very interesting peice of nonfiction you have written here. Having observed these events in third person, it seems fairly accurate and provides some good insight into what was really going on back then from your viewpoint. At the moment, I want to respond with something really important and profound, but as you know that isn't usually my style

[ericjherboso]

I think that's the first poetry anyone has posted on my blog since harm's way introduced me to ts eliot _years_ ago.

[kevinsparakeet]

Actually, this is hardly Eliot here. This is Guns n' Roses, from a song called Locomotive.

[ericjherboso]

My main complaint with applied mathematics is that it's so very useless. It doesn't get at the core of what is, but instead tries to fudge things into mimicking reality. For all that it works on a regular basis, it still feels to me like biology from a physicist's standpoint, or psychology from a psychiatrist's standpoint. It isn't helping anything _real_; it just deals with reality in a horridly obscure way.

[kevinsparakeet]

Useless in your POV, but practical for those who need to do real work with empirical observations about the universe. Applied mathematics provides the basis to which predictions can be made about reality. The difference isn't as large as you would think. It is similar to theoretical vs. experimental physics. One is useless without the other. If you can't test a mathematical hypothesis or somehow construct a model off which to base predictions or describe events, then there is no point to the entire field of mathematics except as an intellectual game.

[ericjherboso]

The whole point of math is as an intellectual game. To sully it with reality is just plain wrong. As for predictions about reality, I have a hard time jibing applied mathematics with what they purport to simulate. Things start looking too magical when you go into that stuff and much less rigorous. See The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences for more in depth on this.

Also, experimental physicists suck ass. They're only slightly better than chemists.

[kevinsparakeet]

I'll get to reading that article shortly as it looks pretty interesting. However, I will comment that unlike purely applied mathematicians in the strict sense that you purport, chemists and experimental physicists are USEFUL. I claim that these type of mathematicians simply do not exist. Pure and applied mathematics are simply too intertwined at the higher levels