Should You Date a Mathematician? | Hacker News Reader

Should You Date a Mathematician?

blog.tanyakhovanova.com

41 pointsMuzza17 comments

I think this article proves that it's time for another discussion about slipping standards here on HN. She writes:

I am an expert on NOT avoiding mathematicians: in fact, I’ve married three of them and dated x number of them.

Everyone knows that any variable labeled x is allowed to take on fractional values. Since she's probably not an actual serial killer[1], we can only assume she meant to say that the set of mathematicians dated can be indexed by a section of positive integers. In other words, she's dated n mathematicians.

How this advice got past peer review is beyond me.

[1] for one thing, many of them are too sane to date mathematicians.

Someone mentioned HN in a reddit comment about a week ago. Its over.

This post is wonderful! Surprisingly straightforward, well-written, and with just the right amount of charm. I think it will ring true to anyone who's spent a lot of time around mathematicians.

Oh, and this is hilarious:

What is the difference between an extroverted mathematician and an introverted one? The extroverted one looks at your shoes, rather than at his own shoes.

It's unfair to single that quote out, though, because this isn't a joke article.

This post is wonderful! Surprisingly straightforward, well-written, and with just the right amount of charm.

Perhaps because it was written by a mathematician? ;)

Yes, the no-fluff straightforwardness of the piece is surprising only by the ordinary standard of linkbaity titles and so on... i.e. only by comparison to nearly everything. But not at all surprising once you get who the author is.

From the article:

> It is impossible and unfair to describe mathematicians as a type.

This is so true! Back then in school, I attended lots of Mathematical Olympiads and I came to know all different kinds of characters. Even in the higher ranks, closer the the IMO (http://www.imo-official.org/), there was no single kind of character dominating.

We all were so different from each other that I finally gave up using the word "mathematician" to describe anything but the plain interest in math.

I hope people would date mathematicians. I broke up with my boyfriend a couple weeks ago, and don't want to be single forever!

After reading the article, I discovered that I don't know the color of my eyes, nor that of my ex-boyfriend's eyes.

I guess I'm that kind of mathematician. Forever alone. :(

Eye color is nothing. Can you remember faces and names?

I struggle to remember names of faces of people. I have very poor memory for names, faces, and all that sort of thing. I don't remember the names of movies, celebrities or any of that sort of thing. I remember by people by their intellectual thoughts (I.E. the person who though X, or the person with spoke with this sort of vocabulary).

Am I a mathematician? Not really. I gave up on mathematics after I got addicted to the 3x+1 problem.

I can't remember faces, but I do okay at matching faces to names.

Whats the 3x+1 problem?

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Collatz_conje...

HN is not the place for memes, but cheer up.

You've now identified a problem. Whats important is what you do about it.

What meme?

The piece is extremely literal and precise. If you enjoyed it, you should date a mathematician.

If you didn't, well then in the first place, you probably are not reading Hacker News ;)

My GF,is a mathematician. She is beautiful, intelligent, fun, and an incredible artist. We have been together for 10 years. Why havent we married? Between us we have 3 exes and 5 grown children. We have each other and dont need theocratic or societal benediction.

depends, are you going to be a part of a social experiment with nash-equilibrium somewhere ?

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