Every Day I’m Galerkin

Applied Mathematician, Veteran, Nevadan — Probably watching Star Trek. (he/him/his)

[Every Day I’m Galerkin @BikeMath]

I guess I’ll be taking questions at this time

[Every Day I’m Galerkin @BikeMath]

I’ve begun calling people that enthusiastically use AI in tacky ways (or are otherwise off-putting zealots) “Twomblies”

I encourage you to do the same.

[Bryce Greene @TheGreeneBJ]

The future is so bleak oh my god

[Every Day I’m Galerkin @BikeMath]

@notasadloser @dropout TV isn’t even ranked?

[Las Vegas 28’s @liberallyLV]

The “we let Israelis sexually assault kids and go back to Israel instead of facing trial” caucus has spoken I guess

Vote Aaron ford

[Adam Johnson @adamjohnsonCHI]

If you think this is about “hurt feelings” sry you’re a child. Stevens has been making veiled threats (of, at minimum, un-endorsing) for weeks unless El Sayed denounced ALL his meaningful criticisms of israel. He refused. At some point AIPAC had to follow through on these threats

[Every Day I’m Galerkin @BikeMath]

@Forever_Wario Doesn’t drug discovery already outpace clinical trials?

[Every Day I’m Galerkin @BikeMath]

@Forever_Wario To be fair, the research funding wasn’t exactly flush for folks looking to explore new methods.

[Eric Weinstein @ericweinstein]

No disrespect to Prof. @AlexKontorovich. This is however exactly what I have been warning you about.

It takes guts to admit that we are training people today for jobs that used to exist 55 years ago. And that is what got said.

Remember what I am claiming: top students used to survive in mathematics. See the graphics attached from top advisors in the earlier era when jobs existed...the students survived! It was never as Alex portrayed it to be. No current advisor anywhere has these kind of survival statistics. That is what is being covered up. And there are MANY MANY more advisors who shouldn't be advising a single PhD student. Ever.

We were training our future colleagues. Now we are exploiting workers misclassified as students so we can import them in massive numbers and work them in a plantation system. The students generally don't survive. And then we lie about them and say that they weren't good enough! That is literally how the system was rearchitected when the jobs stagnated over 55 years ago. And the sharp elbows edge out the sharpest minds often in the academic hunger games. Literally that is what happened. That's why the greats mostly dried up.

Now we have *worse* mathematicians on average who are more incrementalist survivalists than romantic heroes and we are stuck pretending that there has not been a massive decline from the Grothendieck, Mllnor, von Neumman, Atiyah, Serre era.

I am not blaming Prof. @AlexKontorovich. He has survived and I salute that. But make no mistake, he never saw the system that actually worked. I barely did when I was around 20 and it was already in flames.

But unlike Alex, I was often in the room in the 1990s in Washington DC when the post-cold war sausage was being made at NSF and on the Hill. And what we did was to largely destroy the university system.

Read what he writes. He is talking about the Hunger Games where one of the most important mathematicians, Zhang, worked at @subway and that is just fine. It's like training highly specialized neurosurgeons to be baristas or call center operators. It just doesn't make any sense and the mathematics community does not notice that it is operating a planation where it has to dispose of bodies and train our geopolitical rivals in sensitive subjects to stay afloat.

I am sorry. But we went mad under Reagan and then insane under Clinton. This actually makes no sense now and made no sense then when I tried to stop it.

It's a suicidal plantation economics operation that makes us weak and our geopolitical rivals strong. Full Stop. That's all there is to it.

[Every Day I’m Galerkin @BikeMath]

@littmath She’s got a bright future ahead of her in operations research.

[Every Day I’m Galerkin @BikeMath]

@aryehazan @Ag2Adam Thank you for this rousing good-faith exchange between rational, fair minded adults.

[Every Day I’m Galerkin @BikeMath]

@aryehazan @Ag2Adam For the same reason you choose to comment on it

[Every Day I’m Galerkin @BikeMath]

@Ag2Adam @aryehazan Everyone, including math, is motivated by money— especially when there’s so little of it. It’s why “prestige” is so guarded/managed.

If you genuinely believe that the discipline is filled (and run!) by folks that don’t care about money, I’ve got a mint delta 88 for sale.

[Every Day I’m Galerkin @BikeMath]

@PosterInternet If we’re going to be fair, “at its best” is a solid hedging statement.

How often is mathematics “at its best?”

[Every Day I’m Galerkin @BikeMath]

@AlexKontorovich Students should be interning or spending summers with different advising mentors- it should be nearly impossible for one ego to kneecap someone’s future.

[Every Day I’m Galerkin @BikeMath]

@AlexKontorovich I’m glad you’re acknowledging the struggle he had. It’s evident by the threads I’m seeing today that folks genuinely didn’t know he was on a part time teaching contract at NH when he submitted the paper.

What’s the solution? I think PhD students need a wider support net.

[Every Day I’m Galerkin @BikeMath]

@ertwro @plumsirawit He did not. He was on a part time teaching contract. This is well documented.

[Every Day I’m Galerkin @BikeMath]

@jaredpretender @plumsirawit His merit was demonstrated long before he proved the biggest result of the last decade. He was also not tenured at UH in the traditional sense- he was on a teaching contract. They upgraded his position when the result was accepted. This is well documented.

[Every Day I’m Galerkin @BikeMath]

@plumsirawit With whose resources?

At some point, people need to be able to eke out a dignified living. No one was saying he couldn’t be a “mathematician” - but he was snubbed (due to matters that had nothing to do with his “merit”) at every turn.

[Every Day I’m Galerkin @BikeMath]

@therealoak111 @aryehazan If he had published just a *good* result— perhaps even a “career milestone” grade result (not the most important result of the last decade), would the community still have made room for him?

I don’t even think NH would have made room for him.

[Every Day I’m Galerkin @BikeMath]

@Ag2Adam @aryehazan “Less than others…”

Citing facts not in evidence.

We’re far more resource constrained which exacerbates the politics and favoritism.