Modern day mathematician

I have always wanted to be a mathematician (weird I know). Their job is playing with pure ideas and solving hard problems. All a mathematician needs is paper, a pencil, and a waste basket.

There is an old proverb - "A mathematician never soils his hands with calculations." First, ignore the gender bias. Second, in the time before computers that perspective made sense. Actual calculations waste precious time. Now that world view is limiting. Testing ideas, at any scale, is computational efficient. However if there is little (or no thought) for Big O, it is difficult to compare multiple correct methods.

I'm pragmatic in choosing between abstract calculations of run time and Monte Carlo simulations. I choose the quickest, best time estimation method for a given problem. But I always makes estimates. A modern day mathematician has to realize the constraints of reality on pure solutions.

Action-oriented reading

Just reading an item (and most likely forgetting it) is a low-value activity for me. Reading should be more than just providing the raw material for the cocktail party grist mill. I want to make a dent in the universe - make the world a better, more interesting place. I read as a means towards that end.

I ask myself:

• What will I do differently because of what I just read?
• How will I take what I have read and manifest it as visible, positive change?

Academic courting ritual

There is much to learned in graduate school and depending on your mentor you might not get the mentoring you need. Some mentors are human-sized lab rats, living in the lab and pumping out publication after publication. Other mentors are gregarious connectors, they know which other researchers have free cycles and available money (possibility more important). Both personality traits are useful in scientific career but the social bootstrapping is the one most frequently missing.

Part of a young scientists' maturation is developing the ability to work with collaborators. Those collaborators hopefully will grow into colleagues, people to join with for grants and suggest graduate students. This is the power of weak ties. The process starts with the academic courting ritual.

Academic courting ritual:

1. Make small talk
2. Find common connections
3. Discuss current projects
4. Exchange papers to read

Think optimal, not just possible

We live in amazing times. You can find out any fact or connect with almost anyone in the world on the device in your pocket. People then go out of their way to "prove" they do anything on their little screens. "I have a startup focusing on mobile strategy for Big Data analysis." Really? Just because you can doesn't mean you should.

Complex, creative work is faster and better on a big screen (preferable multiple).

Programming instead of math; statistics instead of calculus

Schools should be teaching computer programming instead of math^[1]. Math is a systematic, rigorous thought system that builds quantitative reasoning and problem solving skills. Programming taps into a similar set of skills but is more practical. The ability to write functional code will take the most people further than factoring polynomials. It could be as simple as Automator or Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) in Excel.

Schools should be teaching statistics instead of calculus. Very few people use the calculus taught in school. However probability, the fundamental basis of statistics, is a general life skill. Thinking probabilistically cracks open the door of possibility that our typical deterministic thoughts leave closed. With the increasing amount and power of data, a basic data analysis toolbox is more valuable than infinitesimals.

School should be preparing students for the world as it is and how it will mostly likely be. Far more people are programming than using math, and far more people are applying statistics than calculus.

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1. By math, I mean algebra, geometry, and trigonometry. Basic arithmetic is a necessary skill for every functional citizen.  ↩
   

Fear-driven professional development

Knowledge workers are susceptible to nonclinical impostor syndrome, a lurking fear that they will be found out as a fraud and haven't earned what they have. Those feelings are heightened with streaming access to the best people in the field. It is easy to find someone who is more clever, more accomplished, a little more everything.

In turn, driving a frantic obsession with self improvement at work (with residual guilt for not doing enough). Instead ask, "How much better can I be in order to give back to the world?" - love-driven professional development.

On Writing (Science) Well

I'm working my way through On Writing Well by William Zinsser (hat tip to Merlin Mann). It is a simple, but not easy, approach to better nonfiction writing. It advocates boldness. Directly stating is better than obliquely suggesting. Active is better than passive.

This is very different from my default writing style for science and statistics. Standard science and statistics language is too often passive and awkward. While revising one of my current manuscripts, I have found the following peccadillos:

• “This can be seen when”
• “All procedures were approved by”
• “could potentially have”
• “can be described as”

Mindfulness is the first step towards change.