Well, I liked best the sections entitled "It's all relative", "Homesick and horror-scenarios", "Search committees", "Not completely jealous", "Conclusions and Future Work". There is much truth in what Stefan writes (often, it's something he's learned from other people, but that doesn't decrease the value of those thoughts).
Take for example "Homesick and horror-scenarios". Recently, I've been thinking a lot on the topic and I think that I'd rather sacrifice my career as a researcher and find some job outside academia than leaving my family for years. What's your opinion on that, by the way? How do you see your future?
As to "Not completely jealous", I can say that I completely share the idea of that Romanian girl concerning mathematical olympiads. I think I lost more than I gained. From the 8th grade on, I almost didn't have a social life. (I have sort of romantic reminiscences about the 6th and 7th grades, when I could play a lot with my friends, and they wouldn't treat me as a nerd. We would spent the whole summer outdoors, doing all kinds of things, having nothing to care about... All that ceased at once when I switched to another school.) I was devoting my spare time to training my solving skills. Now I look at people who never participated in any kind of olympiads and nonetheless have become good mathematicians and I feel sort of regret for all those years. The most painful thing is when you fail after spending hundred of days preparing to a contest and having solved hundreds of problems. Achieving success is rewarding, but the stress you accumulate underway spoils the feeling of satisfaction.
There are other points distributed all over the text which I agree upon, but I am too lazy to comment on them, maybe some time in a private conversation...
Hi, sorry for delay with a reply. At the moment I have quite a lot of staff to worry about.
However, the theme you started seams to be very important. I probably told you that this Christmas I visited my teacher in Vinnitsa and all funny and sad memories came alive. That teacher (you have probably seen that post about her) for many years preparing kids for olimpiads and math tournaments. We met almost exactly 15(!) years ago. So, it’s time to see and analyse what we (her pupils) are, what we became. Just few of us become scientists. The others, well… to many sad stories. You say that you could have much more fun playing with your friends instead of preparing for tournaments and solving thousands of problems. This made a borderline between you and your former friends. My experience is different. My friend was selected for the second level of tournament and me not. She started to grow up and I was taken back. It was still fun to go to “math circle” by she do it for seriously and me… since I was not to successful in other topics I could not put the “circle” on the first place of my priority list. Now I think, I could be much happier as a teenager, not without math, but without that bad feeling about myself. I mean, there are always people who are much better than we are. However, that’s not an apology for doing nothing. There are lots of problems to solve on every level. Moreover, the stuff, which five years ago seemed to be only for chosen ones, nowadays can be found in textbooks. But, what I believe is really important, is to have somebody to discuss the topic… (Let us develop this theme one other day.) What I wanted to say is that if we consider a “math” as a profession then it is much more tolerant, where almost everybody (at least everybody who really wants to) is welcome, on the contrary to olimpiads, which per definition is only for chosen ones. Therefore, I think it is sad that many young people with best mathematical abilities decide that math is not for them, just because they did not succeed in olimpiads, or because they assume that math would influence their private life.
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Funny, but very true, I agree on many points.
How would you know? Explain what do you mean concretely?
Well, I liked best the sections entitled "It's all relative", "Homesick and horror-scenarios", "Search committees", "Not completely jealous", "Conclusions and Future Work". There is much truth in what Stefan writes (often, it's something he's learned from other people, but that doesn't decrease the value of those thoughts).
Take for example "Homesick and horror-scenarios". Recently, I've been thinking a lot on the topic and I think that I'd rather sacrifice my career as a researcher and find some job outside academia than leaving my family for years. What's your opinion on that, by the way? How do you see your future?
As to "Not completely jealous", I can say that I completely share the idea of that Romanian girl concerning mathematical olympiads. I think I lost more than I gained. From the 8th grade on, I almost didn't have a social life. (I have sort of romantic reminiscences about the 6th and 7th grades, when I could play a lot with my friends, and they wouldn't treat me as a nerd. We would spent the whole summer outdoors, doing all kinds of things, having nothing to care about... All that ceased at once when I switched to another school.) I was devoting my spare time to training my solving skills. Now I look at people who never participated in any kind of olympiads and nonetheless have become good mathematicians and I feel sort of regret for all those years. The most painful thing is when you fail after spending hundred of days preparing to a contest and having solved hundreds of problems. Achieving success is rewarding, but the stress you accumulate underway spoils the feeling of satisfaction.
There are other points distributed all over the text which I agree upon, but I am too lazy to comment on them, maybe some time in a private conversation...
Hi, sorry for delay with a reply. At the moment I have quite a lot of staff to worry about.
However, the theme you started seams to be very important.
I probably told you that this Christmas I visited my teacher in Vinnitsa and all
funny and sad memories came alive. That teacher (you have probably seen that post about her)
for many years preparing kids for olimpiads and math tournaments. We met almost exactly 15(!)
years ago. So, it’s time to see and analyse what we (her pupils) are, what we became. Just few of us become scientists. The others, well… to many sad stories.
You say that you could have much more fun playing with your friends instead of
preparing for tournaments and solving thousands of problems. This made a borderline between you and your former friends. My experience is different. My friend was selected for the second
level of tournament and me not. She started to grow up and I was taken back. It was still fun to
go to “math circle” by she do it for seriously and me… since I was not to successful in other topics I could not put the “circle” on the first place of my priority list. Now I think, I could be much happier as a teenager, not without math, but without that bad feeling about myself. I mean, there are always people who are much better than we are. However, that’s not an apology for doing nothing. There are lots of problems to solve on every level. Moreover, the stuff, which five years ago seemed to be only for chosen ones, nowadays can be found in textbooks. But, what I believe is really important, is to have somebody to discuss the topic… (Let us develop this theme one other day.) What I wanted to say is that if we consider a “math” as a profession then it is much more tolerant, where almost everybody (at least everybody who really wants to) is welcome, on the contrary to olimpiads, which per definition is only for chosen ones. Therefore, I think it is sad that many young people with best mathematical abilities decide that math is not for them, just because they did not succeed in olimpiads, or because they assume that math would influence their private life.
I agree with you that it is the spirit of competitiveness that spoils the positive effect of olympiads.
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