Then and Now
The news in brief : After a fifteen-year-long search (or twenty one years or maybe twenty-six, depending on how one reckons!), I just got a research paper published - in collaboration with Ramana Rao.
"I tell you, if you have the desire for knowledge,...go out and explore. If you are a brave man, you will do nothing; if you are fearful, you may do much, for none but cowards need to prove their bravery. Some will tell you you are mad, and nearly all will say, "What's the use?", for we are a nation of shopkeepers and no shopkeeper will care for a quest that does not promise a financial return within a year. So, you will sledge nearly alone, but those who you sledge with won't be shopkeepers: that's worth a good deal. If you march your winter journeys, you'll have your reward, as long as all you want is a penguin's egg."
- from 'The Worst Journey in the World'by Apsley Cherry-Garrard. (Note: the word 'sledge' is used above not in the cricketing sense).
THEN:
Watson: "You remind me of Edgar Allan Poe's Dupin. I had no idea that such individuals did exist outside of stories."
Holmes: "No doubt you think that you are complimenting me in comparing me to Dupin,... but, Dupin was a very inferior fellow. That trick of his of breaking in on his friends' thoughts with an apropos remark after a quarter of an hour's silence is really very showy and superficial. He had some analytical genius, no doubt; but he was by no means such a phenomenon..."
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NOW:
A Good Friend: Great you got your first paper ... The paper may have no hi-fi equations but, know what, Faraday never ever wrote equations in his papers, he did not even know much Mathematics; and still he is one of the greatest physicists of all time!"
Self: Thanks! That Faraday parallel might have been a compliment. But please note, we attempted something Faraday never tried, something he probably did not even dare to try... like, Faraday only did Physics without knowing much Mathematics; we are trying to do Mathematics without knowing much Mathematics!"
-----
"I tell you, if you have the desire for knowledge,...go out and explore. If you are a brave man, you will do nothing; if you are fearful, you may do much, for none but cowards need to prove their bravery. Some will tell you you are mad, and nearly all will say, "What's the use?", for we are a nation of shopkeepers and no shopkeeper will care for a quest that does not promise a financial return within a year. So, you will sledge nearly alone, but those who you sledge with won't be shopkeepers: that's worth a good deal. If you march your winter journeys, you'll have your reward, as long as all you want is a penguin's egg."
- from 'The Worst Journey in the World'by Apsley Cherry-Garrard. (Note: the word 'sledge' is used above not in the cricketing sense).
THEN:
Watson: "You remind me of Edgar Allan Poe's Dupin. I had no idea that such individuals did exist outside of stories."
Holmes: "No doubt you think that you are complimenting me in comparing me to Dupin,... but, Dupin was a very inferior fellow. That trick of his of breaking in on his friends' thoughts with an apropos remark after a quarter of an hour's silence is really very showy and superficial. He had some analytical genius, no doubt; but he was by no means such a phenomenon..."
-----
NOW:
A Good Friend: Great you got your first paper ... The paper may have no hi-fi equations but, know what, Faraday never ever wrote equations in his papers, he did not even know much Mathematics; and still he is one of the greatest physicists of all time!"
Self: Thanks! That Faraday parallel might have been a compliment. But please note, we attempted something Faraday never tried, something he probably did not even dare to try... like, Faraday only did Physics without knowing much Mathematics; we are trying to do Mathematics without knowing much Mathematics!"
-----
posted by R.Nandakumar @ 8:31 AM
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