Meh?

So I had what some might call a moment of clarity last night while throwing back that disgusting shot of scotch Luke ordered. I took a penetrating look at my life and realized that.... I am at heart an applied math person, not a pure math person.

I just find it a lot easier when problems are related back to concrete, real world situations. That's not to say I don't enjoy thinking abstractly. I just prefer diving into the abstract with a bungee cord instead of a parachute.

After that my rearranged hierarchy of math interests would be:
1. Complex systems
2. Probability and the non-artsy parts of statistics
3. Mathematics of structure (topology and geometry)
4. Theory of computation
5. Everything else

#1 completely dominates everything else (I would spend all my time on it if work didn't force me to focus more on #2 and #4,) so I'll elaborate a bit.

In the first half of the 20th century, we thought we had figured shit out. We thought that with the math we had, we could understand and potentially control things like: weather, the economy, and the human mind. Epic fail.

The math we have now is very much focused on studying fundamentally simple things... things that have nice properties like symmetry. Unfortunately, when you have a large number of agents following even a simple set of rules, crazy shit happens on the global level. For example, we have a very good understanding of particle interactions... but we might never be able to fully understand weather.

Well anyways...
I thought this was a pretty appropriate Valentine's Day entry. Math is my greatest unrequited love, which is saying a lot given my history of unrequited love. I enjoy the beauty and elegance of math, but I don't really have what it takes (intelligence, commitment and focus) to be a real mathematician. All I can do is sit by the side lines and skim papers that I only understand superficially.

Frowntown.