the conference is done, the work for it over. i don't know if i'm a convert to meaη curνature flοws, but it's interesting stuff. maybe i'd be studying it now if my life turned out differently.
being a non-specialist in this area, it reminds me of another conference:
between my first and second years of graduate school, i think i attended half- to a dozen conferences and summer schools. (the organizers had the funding, and at the time i had wanderlust.) [-1]
at some point i found myself in the midwest, attending a conference that wasn't what i thought it was [0]. most of the people were strangers, and none of the talks made any sense: i just couldn't see the big, overarching picture. (to my discredit, though, i wasn't trying very hard.)
i did, however, meet one partner in crime and we ended up playing hooky. working in cafes, bars, and hotel rooms, we churned out a paper that we had in mind. we even typeset it in LaTe&chi!
since then i had vowed never to attend conferences on topics wholly unknown to me, or those not vetted by friends and colleagues.
of course, this weekend i broke that vow;
it worked out, though.
we haven't written any papers yet, but i found a new partner in crime. we skipped a few talks here and there [1], talked over a few ideas, gave contributed talks wholly unrelated to the conference theme.
so yes, i feel like a conference "crasher,"
but i'm not wholly to blame;
the organizers did say that they were willing to fund me. (-:
[-1] [added today] thinking back on it, there were other reasons why i was traveling. i was worried whether i was going to stay, or transfer to another graduate school; at the time i wondered whether i could ever prove anything in such an abstract setting as metrιc spaces, if my school really was a right fit. this made me curious as to what analysis was like elsewhere, and how difficult it would be to transfer and switch fields.
i don't know if conferences were ever the answer. seeing dozens of graduate students and postdocs give talks, though, i realised that i had to stop being a "student" and start being a researcher.
so maybe i did learn something, after all.
[0] usually this happens because i've heard of the plenary speakers, know some of their theorems, and become curious what they will discuss. sometimes it doesn't work out, sometimes it does.
[1] to the organizer(s), if you're reading this: sorry! if it makes you feel better, we'll acknowledge you in whatever papers come out of this collaboration!
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