Quote:
Originally Posted by ajikavix
I'm trying figure something out about this maths, so this might come across as a weird question
When a mathematician is trying to figure out a really difficult formula - are they enjoying the getting it wrong so often part, or are they tilted by this?
What I mean is, say a formula that takes a day or days/weeks or even longer to solve, and sometimes doesn't even get solved.
Is this something a maths guy would do in their relax or chill out time to unwind?, or not? - not because it would just be to tilting to do in their relax/unwind time at the end of a day?.
I'm thinking something like a formula that one is getting wrong hours on end, or day after day, might frustrate them too much be something they want to do in their chill out time, - on the other hand I'm thinking maybe not, as some might get a kick out of this type of stuff, and actually be something they do do in their unwind chill out time.
Yes it is a weird question I know
It is not a weird question. It is the beauty and pleasure of finding things out.
"We must know. We will now." David Hilbert.
Its mostly natural curiosity. To know what the answer is or how it is done or why it is done that way. To know more than you did before the multiple losses and the "victory". The losses bring you to victory. They father it.
For some, if not all at some point in their lives or even always, its the victory also of winning one more time. Its the confirmation you are good enough and better than before and still unstoppable. It is a superficial reason but very natural also.
To be fair if the problem is very interesting and solves some mystery of the world rather than just another difficult or creative problem in general, if it has some substantial application that changes something around us, the joy experienced with the solution or even synthesis is way bigger than any other form of pleasure experienced by humans comparable not with the ephemeral satisfaction of sex or food or water consumption in thirst but maybe the experience of love towards someone very precious or the experience of their love.
And yet if the solution is important one knows it is even above individual love. Because it is love for mankind and wisdom addressed to all. It is the ultimate gift of complexity. And all prior little frustrations and wins all your life in little unimportant or even cute but limited range problems are just training for that moment that may never come but should if you care for clarity and the truth about logic and natural law. You will be rewarded if you care. To finally know what you or nobody ever did before is the ultimate vindication for existing. The purpose of complexity is to build wisdom and explore natural law yielding higher complexity.
You face tilt and frustration and curse the hell out of the world sometimes but you do not really mean it. If you are experienced and wiser you actually care more for learning from failure and noticing what it tells you. Sometimes reverse engineering a failure gets you the answer. See experience as a gift always. Then failure is actually a process of experience building that takes you closer to the answer and may for this reason be very important. The more past victories you had of course on tough problems the higher the confidence and courage acquired. You can endure more, you have patience. You know what will happen in the end. So not being able to solve something is now a challenge, a confrontation you must have that is intriguing and will only lead to victory or learning something new. So why not engage?
What you are effectively chasing though even above all difficult problems is this moment of clarity and higher awareness often found in the simplest of realizations.
"I was sitting in a chair in the patent office at Bern when all of a sudden a thought occurred to me: " If a person falls freely he will not feel his own weight." I was startled. This simple thought made a deep impression on me. It impelled me towards a theory of gravitation." Albert Einstein
If you get this then no amount of hard work following and technical failures will even frustrate you enough to not lead to the answer (ie field equations years later). The answer is synthesis of course. And likely it is what will drive the next beautiful thoughts in others decades or centuries later.
See all your frustrations as training for the real battle ahead. Train well. Clarity will be the reward.