Lessons I wish I had been taught (1996)

I have a colleague who gives great talks. There are three reasons they are great. (1) The science is great. (2) He speaks engagingly and explains his (complex) material very well.(3) He <i>always</i> includes a citation and some very specific remarks on the <i>single</i> paper that I can read, to learn more. This third thing is the most important to the growth of the academic field, because solitary study is usually required to make progress, and nobody has time to read dozens of papers in a field that is not quite their own.

<i>&quot;An audience is like a herd of cows, moving slowly in the direction they are being driven towards. If we make one point, we have a good chance that the audience will take the right direction; if we make several points, then the cows will scatter all over the field.&quot;</i><p>Then proceeds to make several points. Good stuff, though. Rule, exception, moo.

The Feynman method is a nice hack. Good mental model.

I found number 10 (old age) interesting in that I&#x27;m approaching it, hehe. I understood what he wrote for the most part, but could have used a bit more exposition. Anyone want to try describing it, perhaps from another angle?

&gt; Every mathematician has only a few tricks<p>Can anyone in the know illuminate this with some examples?

This was brilliant. Thanks for (re)posting it.<p>I had never heard of Rota before. I&#x27;ll have to read more about him. It&#x27;s a bit sad that he lived for only a couple years after this lecture, dying at the relatively young age of 66. (Wikipedia)

Very odd to see this here. I had recently been Googling the writings of the late professor. He as a few lists like this out there.

&gt;Everyone in the audience has come to listen to your lecture with the secret hope of hearing their work mentioned.<p>People are narcissistic as hell.

The link points to the middle of the article.