There are also types of thinking, including mathematical thinking, where being absolutely motionless on your back (or in an armchair) with your eyes closed is absolutely necessary (I find, and I’m not the only one)
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oh i have also found i needed to be on my back but only very occasionally
there is also this from terence tao:
mathoverflow.net/a/38882/290
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Yes, there are exactly five things that ever been written about how to do mathematics, and that is one of them!
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it is a shockingly small sample of writing huh
this plus some stuff bill thurston wrote plus... proofs and refutations? how to prove it? i'm at 4
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Uh… I kind of thought there was one more, but I may have been thinking of stuff Rota said in person
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rota probably wrote some of it down in discrete thoughts and indiscrete thoughts? although i haven't read either in ages. genuinely sad he died before i had a chance to meet him at MIT, i loved his writing
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I’m embarrassed to say I have not actually read Indiscrete Thoughts, and didn’t even know Discrete Thoughts existed! Thank you, added to my queue :)
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have fun! would love to see a thread of quotes and highlights
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actually maybe i will also do it
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I strongly support this vague intention :)
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first sentence of the preface and he’s already knocking it out of the park
