notes

quotations

There was this essay on competitive math that spread around my Twitter circles lately. The author mourns the pointlessness of the activity, the divergence between the math problems that get you into college and the math problems that push the field forward. I think the problem was actually that he didn’t like the game enough. I have an old rule for myself: Never spend time on something I’d end up regretting if it didn’t lead to the outcome I hoped for.

It’s about the journey, not the destination. The view is always prettiest after a backbreaking hike; the meal tastes better when you’ve prepared it yourself. I tend to get restless when things are easy. Have I ever accomplished anything effortlessly that I’ve really, truly liked? Is an important part of the process feeling like I might die along the way?

Like always, it comes down to that Ira Glass bit about the taste gap: “It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions… It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”