I’ve uploaded notes for the classes I’m taking this semester again. This semester I’m taking the following:
- C*-algebras (Rieffel): An introduction to C*-algebras from the noncommutative geometry point of view. Should be quite interesting.
- Discrete Mathematics for the Life Sciences (Pachter): An introduction to computational genomics. I’m hoping to learn something about what kind of mathematics get used in biology.
- Algebraic Geometry (Nadler): Algebraic geometry from the point of view of categories of (quasi)coherent sheaves, their derived categories, etc. Should also be quite interesting.
I’m getting 403′s for all of them
Ah, sorry, forgot to set permissions again. Try it now?
It’s all good now, thanks
why on earth life sciences? are you also intending to do some reasearch in applicable areas?
The space of possible mathematics I could be doing is quite large, and it seems a shame to restrict myself to just the corner that sounds comfortable and familiar given my past mathematical experiences. I’d like to branch out and get a sense for what else is out there, especially what else is out there that non-mathematicians actually use.
Don’t forget your social development, such as verbally discussing your work with others, or to an imaginary audience for half an hour, that you could perhaps post as a video lecture:
I love Donny Lee’s enthusiasm:
http://www.cosmolearning.com/courses/advanced-differential-calculus/
Mathbyfives no nonsense approach.
http://www.cosmolearning.com/courses/multivariable-calculus-500/
Like it or not, video will make a greater presence on people’s blogs over years to come.
Hi qiauchu,if i understood well you’re teaching yourself some physics. Have you ever tought to make a post about this experience of you,coming from a certain experience in pure math.It’s oftenly said that there are many differences between the approach of the physicist and that of the mathematician,so the kind of post i’m speaking about is an insight on this based on your experience:how the two different languages actually speak of the same kind of things,in wich situation one can be more useful then the other to have the right guesses,what are the difficulties coming from one language to the other,how have you worked on them,and so what are,based on your experience,the general advice that you can give to pure mathematics student to change their mind in order to become comfortable with the intuition of physicist. I hope you understood what i’m asking you. Anyway i would be really interested in a post like this,from you.
Qiaochu
Do you write your blog posts from memory? Or do you have references available?
Most of the time I make them up as I go along. Occasionally I need to look up a proof, e.g. most of the proofs in the Schur-Weyl duality post and the Gelfand-Naimark post.
Do you live tex your notes for each class? Or tex them after class? Also do you already know most of the topics (i.e. study the topics beforehand so it is not difficult)?
Yes, I’m live-TeXing. I don’t know most of the material.
Don’t you find that live-texing is just an exercise in copying stuff quickly? Isn’t it more useful to write the notes after the class?
I’m too lazy to write notes after class. Also, I generally don’t just copy; I editorialize heavily (also because I am lazy).
If you did write notes after class instead of live texing, do you think you would learn more efficiently?
Maybe, but it wouldn’t be worth the extra time. The main way I thoroughly learn material is by writing blog posts about it.
I see. So even by live-texing the notes you don’t thoroughly learn the material? You need to write a blog post about it as well?
That’s been my experience, yes.
It seems that blogging is very expository. You explain the theory but there is not a lot of problem solving. Couldn’t this fool some people in thinking that they know the material (even if they cannot solve the problems)?
Maybe, but the blog posts are primarily for my education, not for other people’s education (that’s just a useful side effect); the problem solving comes from me not looking up proofs.
I see. In subjects like computer programming, would you write blog posts as well? For example if you wanted to become more proficient at Java or C++/data structures would you write blog posts?
Maybe, but it seems like a better idea to do a lot of programming first. You also maybe have a slightly inaccurate impression of how I generate blog posts. They are not all based directly on classroom material or textbook material. For example, the post on epi-mono factorizations is part of a train of thought that naturally came up when I started thinking about carefully justifying all of the axioms of an abelian category. It’s not from a category theory textbook or a homological algebra textbook.
Do you generally try to limit yourself to each blog post taking 1 hour to type? Also, do you plan what to write? Your post on noncommutative probability seemed to be an outlier (i.e. more applied).
No, some of them take much longer, but I think I get a lot out of them so that’s okay. I am bad at sticking to my plans about what to write in general. I usually just write about what’s on my mind (and the reason I haven’t written any posts in awhile is because I’ve been thinking about things other than math).
What other things have you been thinking about?
That may or may not be the subject of future blog posts!
Is it about other academic subjects? Or other things aside from academics (e.g. life, etc..)?
I have a policy of not promising content in future blog posts. For whatever reason, it usually leads to me not writing them. Sorry!
Have you been to CREAM? Also do you think that you are learning towards mathematical biology now?
Yes. Not really.
What is your favorite class right now?
What are you using to draw the figures in your notes? They look great, by the way.
Paper for iPad. Thanks!