A.J.Jacobs ..........et moi

[Zeeshan]

He is a Know-It-All, Biblical Figure Personified, Human Experiment and trying to be The Healthiest Human Being in the World.

A.J.Jacobs is one of many fascinating figure who inspires me. With 2011 around the corner, and everyone getting hyped about resolutions that they can keep, I thought I'd do a similar thing like him.

To me it's not his guzzling of information that interests me rather the beauty of the journey itself. When you see the video you will see what I mean..





So it's no surprise that myself being a math fanatic, I would choose a route on that line. I have finally made up my mind that I will spend the whole coming year trying to immerse myself in Encyclopedia of Mathematics.

Although it's an unconventional learning, because as Paul Halmos said, "Mathematics is not a spectator sport" and unless one publishes a paper he perishes, I'd still prefer this roundabout route of autodidact learning without completing the problems that are given in college courses. I fully understand that this will not prepare me to earn a degree but I hope the journey itself becomes the reward, traveling what the Japanese would call The Way hopefully gaining enough knowledge to craft a paper at the end of the year even though there would not be any specialization.

I am fascinated by concepts and strange sounding lingo such as Weil–Châtelet group and Hopf fibration.

However, this brings to the most important question. How will someone actually know what I have actually read, comprehended and retained? Actually, I am willing to subject myself to barrage of questions from the experts on that field so that when they will ask a question I will be able to answer it. Who knows we will probably set up an online video conference!

But...enough about me. I am also curious to know if anyone would like to follow something interesting endeavor such as Jacobs'. Feel free to express your resolutions and wish me luck. I would also appreciate any suggestion on how to refine the actual litmus test that shows what and how much I've actually learned at the end of 2011.

See you in 1 year.

-Signing of-

Your beloved,

Gopalda

[iDumb]

what! you retiring for a year? Listen this guy has one thing going for him that is usually not true for savants.. he is NOT socially awkward and is kind of funny. That's why he gets to write a book and we get to watch him. But I don't think you should go into this type of nonsense. Being able to memorize is much different from understanding. There are many unsolved math problems out there, if you consider yourself to be at that level, study those to satisfy your love for math instead of "reading" encyclopedia of mathematics - that's absurd.

You know I was impressed by him at first with the first interview, then he gets a question like that wrong in millionaire show and i lost it all:P and then you have idiots going to Harvard. One of the first thing they make us memorize in undergrad is the hematopoiesis in pretty much every single bio courses.
I think it's pretty embarrassing for both of them.

[Night_wolf]

bye bye