Monday, February 01, 2016

Doing mathematics again

since January 13 after a gap of at least two years. Even before, after retirement in 2015, it was only off and on work when Peter Scott wrote to me on older joint projects.It is a bit strange.but because a collaborator was in constant contact, it was not difficult to start working. First it was difficult to understand the statements and more difficult to understand proofs. After a little while I could start seeing some things in the particular topic. But when I started writing down arguments what I thought that I have seen did not work out the same way and after several attempts, the proofs were nothing like what I imagined first. Finally I was able to get some traction on the topic and it is looking progressivly clearer. This is in a topic where I supposedly developed expertise over years since the early 1960s and with an active mathematician constantly answering my questions.I wonder why one so easily responds on social topics with opinions and comments, partcularly on Facebook. I wonder whether Facebook is trivializing discussions.

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