July 2021 newsletter

Welcome to the newsletter for the month that I always call June because because the names are too damn close to each other. You might think I have something interesting to say, but that's where you're wrong bucko. It's the 31st and I only just now remembered that I have this newsletter things that I do every month, and now I'm scrambling to find something to write. I could just cancel it, but that would be silly now wouldn't it?

More math things

I've been studying math intensely since mid April. It's the reason that I've been super inactive on my blog and other things. Just in case you actually cared about why I'm apparently doing nothing except play pokemon.

But yeah. I'm really starting to appreciate the fact that math is a massive interconnected system to describe complicated abstract things about powerful formal systems. It's even increasing my appreciation for programming!

As someone who has grown up not doing much "math", but doing a lot of programming, I already have a lot of the intuitions needed to grasp math, but I had none of the appreciation for it. Like, why would I write something in math one way, when I could just write a computer program with a for loop and be done with it?

But math is a powerful abstraction tool. That's where I was most confused. With math you're expected to substitute arbitrary things for variables, should you need to. If you have y = mx + b, and you need to substitute an expression for b, then that's something you can do, and it'll still work as an equation, and you can still refer to the substituted expression as b. In programming a variable is an identifier for a region of real physical computer memory, and so you can't treat it like a variable in math.

If you say A = B and B = C, then you can also assume that A = C. This transitive property of equality, in math, is one of its most powerful concepts, since it allows for an enormous amount of abstraction, without all the pitfalls of abstraction in software. I don't know how to get software to abstract as well as math does, since part of the reason math abstracts so well is that it relies on human intuition, while programming has to run on a less powerful computer than a brain.

While doing an exploration of even and odd numbers, I basically discovered modular arithmetic, which relates to many other kinds of numbers like imaginary numbers, which relate to other concepts like bla bla bla. The point is that things in math are super interconnected. I'm starting to think that the best way to really learn something in math is to read a bunch of introductory textbooks on a bunch of different fields, and then pick a single field to hyper focus on. Since things are so interconnected, you're probably going to be able to use this hyper focus on other problems that could potentially be solved in a different field. Things are so connected that obtaining mastery in, say, modular arithmetic, would probably also give you strong competence in a ton of other math disciplines.

Math is cool.

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon

With all my intense studying of math, I've been feeling a bit burnt out at times. Don't get me wrong, I like learning things, but there's a limit to my willpower at times. So I've been looking for thins to unwind with recently. A friend reintroduced me to the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon series of videogames, and I've been playing Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Blue Rescue Team quite a bit now.

This game is actually really calming. It's not too difficult if you know what you're doing, you can use basically any pokemon you want due to how damage is calculated, and you are always slightly growing stronger and collecting things. It's a very nice progression game. What's better is that it's perfect for playing for an hour or two while having a youtube video in the background to unwind.

I'm in the post game right now, and I've got a Masquerain as my main poke of focus. I could use one of my starter guys, but I honestly like Masquerain better. I've been soloing the post game dungeons with it, and it's almost at the point where it can learn the room-wide Silver Wind move, which will make it absurdly over powered. I've also got it's IQ to max, so it can dig through walls.

If you don't understand what I'm saying, just pretend you do. Nobody will know the difference.

That's all folks

Seriously, that's it. That's all I've done this month. My life has become particularly predictable since I started studying math. Maybe I should take a break or something to write a nice long blog post or story. I've missed writing a lot.

-Tim