New aspect of teaching prep: run all my essay prompts through ChatGPT to see what happens.

In conclusion
1. My prompts are sufficiently weird/specific to the class that the bot is basically unable to produce anything of merit. It flows well, but has no content. 2. Moreover, if I ask it to provide references it completely gives up and says "Sorry, I'm a language tool, I can't provide references".

3. It obvious can't (yet?) fulfil the part where I ask students to refer to examples we discussed in class.

A thread on asking questions in math talks.

This week I was at a 60th birthday conference, the first in-person conference I've been to since Covid that's more or less in my field, and I decided to do something radical: I decided to ask questions. I've basically never asked questions at conference talks before, or even in research seminars, because I'm too scared of being told my question is stupid. And by the way I'm not imagining this: early in my career I tried asking questions and was told my question was stupid!

I've finally figured out a way to avoid the awful endorphin crash I get at the gym in between exercises. I love doing plyos but they're quite high intensity and the endorphin rush leads to a crash instantly when I finish a set and move onto the next set. It takes one second. I tried reading up about this and found nothing helpful, so eventually figured this out: instead of just resting in between, if I do the last rep of the set and hold the ending position as a sort of yoga pose/stretch instead of just relaxing, then I don't get the crash.

@WanderingPoint @Joe_DoesMath Good question, and thanks for stressing that you're not being snarky. My really close math friends are in category theory, yes. They're the friends I've made at category theory conferences over the years. @WanderingPoint @Joe_DoesMath Grad school in the UK is different, and was particularly different in my day. There was no "program" so I only hung out with the other category theorists. But also I felt looked down on by competitive people in other fields.

I'm honoured to announce that I've been invited to be a Patron of Springboard, the Brighton & Hove Performing Arts Festival. Here comes a long thread! Video at the end. @SpringboardFes1 springboardfestival.co.uk/information/wh… This was formerly the Brighton Competitive Music Festival, and I took part in it every year from the age of 5 to 17, playing the piano (solo and duets with my sister), violin, chamber music and also in choirs.

Macaron day moved up a day this week because of the clocks changing. Just kidding: it's because I have a thing after class tomorrow. Today's excitement was fixing my buttercream - it was splitting again and my instinct was to chill it a bit, but The Internet told me the correct temp for buttercream is 72-76F. Mine was 70!! So I microwaved it fo 3 seconds, and then 3 seconds again...

I bought one experimental pair of stretchy pants for the summer (three quarter length) and that's it, I might just never wear non-stretchy pants again. (Previously I've only had stretchy long pants. I had stretchy shorter ones but only for home as they look like PJs.) Well either they've managed to make these new ones not look like PJs, or my standards have changed! Or possibly a little of both.

I just did more trig than I think I've done in the last 20 years put together, to figure out how to draw a regular five pointed star in PSTricks - like the one with overlapping lines, but without the overlapping lines. I guess this is an advice magnet, lol. No thanks. It was exceedingly tedious, thoroughly painful, and I felt very sorry for everyone being made to do geometry and trig calculations in school. However I also felt extremely triumphant when I did it. I enjoyed being sure I could do it; I just didn't enjoy doing it.

I am musing about why students tell me they don't know something (eg on the homework) rather than looking it up on The Internet. Have we somehow given them the impression that googling something is "cheating"? When in fact it is now an important life skill, in my opinion. I wonder if education spends too long telling them Wikipedia doesn't count as a source, without also explaining to them that it's a perfectly good way of starting to find things out as long as you read it sensibly, and it's better than not even trying to find out.

I really enjoy going further and further back "to scratch" like with the tiramisu... for me it's a lot like trying to go back to first principles in math, which is why I'm a category theorist. I think to go back further "to scratch" with tiramisu I'd have to make my own brandy, raise my own cows and chickens... and also grind my own cocoa from beans, maybe grow wheat and coffee... I'm not going to do that. I think it's like the fact that I'm not a set theorist!!!

I'm doing that thing where I was just improving one line of my proof and that turned into an entire paper. And then I was fixing one line of that proof, and that turned into an entire paper. And again. I'm currently in about the 6th nesting of something I started in 2013. Along the way, this morning I also had my sort of annual "Ooh I think I've solved that thing I've been trying to solve since 2006" - but yet again, I haven't. But I get closer each time, so I'm optimistic that I might get there in 20 or 30 years if I'm still around and lucid!

PSA: the tiramisu with my home-made mascarpone was totally bizarre. The mascarpone was extremely solid when I took it out of the fridge. When I beat it into the egg yolks it went completely runny, and just tasted of lemon, so I thought it was going to be terrible. But... I compiled it anyway (little mini ones) and they completely firmed up again in the fridge, and taste...decent. The mascarpone is just a bit grainy. On reflection, I suspect this is because I used previously frozen cream.

OK funny story related to my previous thread. It starts not-so-funny though: I was thinking about when I used to hang around in bars (when I was "young", and when there was no pandemic). Men very often tried to buy me drinks. I almost always declined. Partly this is because I have a very low alcohol tolerance and prefer to keep my mental faculties. Partly it's because I will not accept a drink unless I have watched it being poured, straight out of a bottle. Partly it's in order not to give the wrong idea.

I've been thinking about how this business of unsolicited advice is part of the same culture of consent (or lack of it) that results in widespread sexual harassment.

https://twitter.com/sleepymathgrl/status/1320811230748004352

First, that we (often women) can ask people (often men) specifically not to do something and they still do it. Somehow they think that we don't mean it, or that they know better than us, or that we're going to love it anyway, despite ourselves.

Well that calculation got out of hand.

No advice, thanks. I'm just posting this pic for interest and a glimpse into what my research looks like. It's sort of aggravating that I always have to specify "no advice". But some people (usually male) will always try to give me "advice" otherwise, and indeed they often still try even when I do say it. Even about my research!

That fing where you sit working at your computer in the dark because the sun went down and the light switch is out of reach and you just filmed virtual class *and then* sanch backup audio because the main audio failed and also had to restart twice because the computer crashed... ...so there is *no way* you are getting off the sofa just to turn on the light and yes "sanch" is the past tense of "synch".

Some of my organising tips: 1. Leave everything exactly where you last used it. Chances are that's where you'll next use it. Much more efficient than putting it away and getting it out again. Also more memorable so I don't lose things. 2. Leave cupboard doors open. Saves loads of opening and closing time and it also helps you see where things are. 3. Never make your bed; it will just get messed up again in a few hours.

I haven't really written about that! Those are deep question. At the start you are a PhD student so your supervisor gives you problems. Then every time you achieve something it opens up new problems. One of the skills is to recognise what might be interesting and fruitful. 1/n

https://twitter.com/rdviii/status/1020810136896528384

2/n Personally I periodically write lists of things that have occurred to me to think about. Often I'll do an initial investigation to test the waters, and then decide what to think about first. Often it chooses itself for me because I can't stop thinking about it.

I dare you to stop using the word "talented". The idea of "talent" perpetuates the myth that there is something you have to be born with in order to be good at something. It stops people achieving things if they think it's futile because they're not "talented". It invalidates the hard work that people put in to achieve things. It is part of a fixed mindset when it's more productive to think about growth.