Wednesday, January 16, 2008

how perspective changes: "what have you done for me, lately?"

four months ago, i was absolutely delighted that one of my ideas might be applicable to a special case of a conjecture,

that is, someone else's conjecture.
i didn't formulate it myself;
i wasn't even a mathematician at the time
!

lately i've been slightly depressed, and this is why:
i can't seem to prove the conjecture in full generality.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's at least something, a contribution. I think as a new step it's more properly measured by how difficult it is rather than how widely it can be generalized.

janus said...

i wouldn't say that it's particularly hard .. then again, it mightn't be the first thing which comes to mind.

[shrugs]

eye of the beholder, i suppose.