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sniffnoySo, um, hi! I don't post a lot here these days, but I am hoping maybe to start again what with the Tumblr diaspora? Mind you, every other attempt so far of mine to get back into this has failed, but I'm hoping maybe this one might be different because I have some new readers as a result of the Tumblr incident? To be honest, I don't really know just why I haven't been posting much in the last, um, decade or so, posting mostly just occasional bits of math -- of which I'm getting substantially less done now that I'm working a day job rather than just living as a math bum -- that I will eventually need to properly write up and publish (once I get through the rest of my backlog).
I mean, there are several possible reasons, as I see it. But! Before I get to that, I think I should make a note about a key feature of DW (and LJ before it). Which is... I can write protected entries! Yay! But, it occurs to me that that isn't really what I want to do. What I would really like is if, like, each entry could have both an exoteric version and an esoteric version. :P That, I cannot do.
But what I can do, I figure, is I can, like, write a public entry and a protected addendum. And I can, like, mark parts of the public entry with a footnote just saying "[esoteric]" or "see protected addendum", or something like that. :) Yay! Hell, in some cases I might even have *more* than two versions...
Anyway, maybe I should introduce myself for the new readers (don't worry, I'm not going to do this repeatedly). It says in my profile I don't bother giving context for my posts, but maybe I should start doing more of that -- you know, just putting in footnotes and such. And then some of these can be the esoteric footnotes mentioned above. :P
So, anyway, introduction. I'm Harry Altman, also known as Sniffnoy, which is probably how any new readers know me.[0] I'm a mathematician, although presently one with a day job working at Truffle on a Solidity debugger that takes up most of my time (it's pretty cool if you ask me -- I'm working on a debugger!). I do... weird math that doesn't classify easily. I think of myself primarily as an unusual sort of combinatorialist, but everyone else seems to think I'm a logician, because I like fundamental things and also infinities. Actual proper logic, though, of the what-proves-what sort, I tend to stay away from and frankly it hurts my head. I live in Ann Arbor at the moment but (since I work remotely) might be moving elsewhere in a few months. (Not to the Bay Area. Not joining the black hole, sorry.)
OK? That sufficient introduction? Well, I hope so, that's what you're getting.
So why did I mostly stop writing here? Well, there's any number of possible explanations, but the thing is that most of the ones it's easy to think of are actually ruled out by chronology, i.e., they occurred after I had already mostly stopped writing here. Like, one might imagine it's due to:
*. No longer living in the every-4-years-things-start-anew context of high school or undergrad; the world outside of those can be a bit more permanent, so I'm less comfortable stating things publicly if they might cause any sort of problem
*. Uhhh let's skip talking about this one[1]
*. The functions of these having been taken over by my private letters to or conversations with particular people, particularly Shuo[2]
*. No longer having so many people I know on LJ (or DW these days, but that transition happened well after I'd mostly stopped), who'd be reading and commenting
*. As a result of the above, not having any idea what audience I should be writing for
...but, well, like I said, chronology rules out lots of these; I only started writing to Shuo a few years ago, for instance. Well, I don't know. With this post I am effectively making a bet that it's due to the lack of readers, but, <shrug>. Like I said, we'll see how much I follow up on this.
Next time, if I remember:Christmas carolers and Weird short films!
EDIT: Struck the Christmas carolers thing because it was short enough to fit in a tweet :P
-Harry
[0] [esoteric]
[1] [esoteric]
[2] An old friend of mine from undergrad who I rarely get to see but who asked me to write to her, though she rarely has time to reply[3]. It is *true* I'd say that my letters to her have largely taken over the purpose my LJ used to serve, but it's a bit different since it's tailored to that one person rather than whoever might be reading. And of course this happened years later which means that inbetween there really was no equivalent.
[3] [esoteric]
I mean, there are several possible reasons, as I see it. But! Before I get to that, I think I should make a note about a key feature of DW (and LJ before it). Which is... I can write protected entries! Yay! But, it occurs to me that that isn't really what I want to do. What I would really like is if, like, each entry could have both an exoteric version and an esoteric version. :P That, I cannot do.
But what I can do, I figure, is I can, like, write a public entry and a protected addendum. And I can, like, mark parts of the public entry with a footnote just saying "[esoteric]" or "see protected addendum", or something like that. :) Yay! Hell, in some cases I might even have *more* than two versions...
Anyway, maybe I should introduce myself for the new readers (don't worry, I'm not going to do this repeatedly). It says in my profile I don't bother giving context for my posts, but maybe I should start doing more of that -- you know, just putting in footnotes and such. And then some of these can be the esoteric footnotes mentioned above. :P
So, anyway, introduction. I'm Harry Altman, also known as Sniffnoy, which is probably how any new readers know me.[0] I'm a mathematician, although presently one with a day job working at Truffle on a Solidity debugger that takes up most of my time (it's pretty cool if you ask me -- I'm working on a debugger!). I do... weird math that doesn't classify easily. I think of myself primarily as an unusual sort of combinatorialist, but everyone else seems to think I'm a logician, because I like fundamental things and also infinities. Actual proper logic, though, of the what-proves-what sort, I tend to stay away from and frankly it hurts my head. I live in Ann Arbor at the moment but (since I work remotely) might be moving elsewhere in a few months. (Not to the Bay Area. Not joining the black hole, sorry.)
OK? That sufficient introduction? Well, I hope so, that's what you're getting.
So why did I mostly stop writing here? Well, there's any number of possible explanations, but the thing is that most of the ones it's easy to think of are actually ruled out by chronology, i.e., they occurred after I had already mostly stopped writing here. Like, one might imagine it's due to:
*. No longer living in the every-4-years-things-start-anew context of high school or undergrad; the world outside of those can be a bit more permanent, so I'm less comfortable stating things publicly if they might cause any sort of problem
*. Uhhh let's skip talking about this one[1]
*. The functions of these having been taken over by my private letters to or conversations with particular people, particularly Shuo[2]
*. No longer having so many people I know on LJ (or DW these days, but that transition happened well after I'd mostly stopped), who'd be reading and commenting
*. As a result of the above, not having any idea what audience I should be writing for
...but, well, like I said, chronology rules out lots of these; I only started writing to Shuo a few years ago, for instance. Well, I don't know. With this post I am effectively making a bet that it's due to the lack of readers, but, <shrug>. Like I said, we'll see how much I follow up on this.
Next time, if I remember:
EDIT: Struck the Christmas carolers thing because it was short enough to fit in a tweet :P
-Harry
[0] [esoteric]
[1] [esoteric]
[2] An old friend of mine from undergrad who I rarely get to see but who asked me to write to her, though she rarely has time to reply[3]. It is *true* I'd say that my letters to her have largely taken over the purpose my LJ used to serve, but it's a bit different since it's tailored to that one person rather than whoever might be reading. And of course this happened years later which means that inbetween there really was no equivalent.
[3] [esoteric]
