Posts
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How To Start Programming Like a Pro: Mindset and Tools
May 23, 2017
My fundamental goal for RC is to learn how to think and work like a programmer in a professional environment.
My programming background has been coding for a few research projects in SageMath, which is basically Python with pure math library functions, and a couple foundational CS courses. I’ve never worked in industry or managed a large code-base.
Today I had the chance to learn about what constitutes a good programming setup from Saul Pwanson, who’s programmed his whole life (that’s over 30 years).
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On Organizing the March for Science In My City
May 6, 2017
Someone asked me to put up a transcript of the speech I gave on organizing a satellite March for Science. Here it is.
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On Memorizing Research-Level Math
May 4, 2017
This Math Overflow post answer about how to not forget old math by Timothy Chow is so relevant I’m posting it here on my blog.
Forgetting lots of stuff is inevitable. But there are ways you can mitigate the damage of this information loss. I find that a useful technique is to try to organize your knowledge hierarchically.
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Gromov's Seminal Breakthrough (short)
April 21, 2017
I’m currently reading the long overdue 1981 paper of Gromov showing that virtually nilpotent groups are precisely the groups with polynomial growth.
To my surprise, the breakthrough wasn’t mind-blowingly, spectacularly, unspeakably awesomely seminalDon’t get me wrong, it’s still very seminal, just not as much as I originally thought, which would have been hard to satisfy for any mathematical result. as I thought it was, in the sense that the literature was somewhat building up to itOf course, this is a fundamental theme in mathematical research, which is easy to forget because it is routinely contradicted by myths of lone mathematicians. As you can see, I’m completely guilty of forgetting myself! .
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How to Run A Python Script in Slurm-Based Cluster in Five Minutes
April 18, 2017
This actually took me a couple hours to figure outErm, more like a day if we take into account the frustration and the resulting procrastination. On the other hand, I got to listen to this amazing podcast with Kara Swisher, a fearlessly straightforward journalist. Life-changing. , so hopefully I save you some time!