i'm not sure how it happened, but during my meeting with the advisor i screwed up the same proof two weeks in a row. it's not a new theorem, and not even the proof of a theorem, but a single line in a proof.
one. single. line.
i hate being inept, i hate wasting the advisor's time, and for a little while today, i hated mathematics.
after that debacle of a meeting and two seminars later, i sat at my office desk and thought. in other words, i stared at the chalkboard and it stared right back.
then i decided to make a cup of coffee, and as i was pouring the water into the back chamber of giulia [1] the idea suddenly hit me. by the time the coffee was ready, i came up with a correct proof ..
.. well, it looks correct, but so did the last two 'proofs' of mine. but looking at these steps, it's obvious. f*cking obvious.
so i sipped the coffee angrily, hardly enjoying it at all.
[1] yes, the coffee maker is called giulia, and no, i didn't name it; my officemate kevin tu¢ker did.
when we were trying to come up with names, i suggested we could name it after a beautiful woman and immediately, he thought of giulia (pronounced: julia, but trochaically).
No comments:
Post a Comment