Goal-oriented aspiring mathematician and mathematical physicist

[EcSolticia]

How did you find PF?

I found PF when I searched a question online, the exact details of which I cannot recall.

Hello, I am Quinn EcSolticia. I value rationality and human intellect; whilst my main interest lies in mathematics and theoretical physics. I am currently an 18 Y/O student, but I have a deeply clarified purpose that guides my life which I do not think might really change very easily in my lifetime, if at all, it being a fundamental aspect of who I am as a person.

Part of my abstract purpose entails obtaining high level of skills in the domain of mathematics, physics and more generally critical thinking. I am not declaring myself to be a "critical thinker" (though many people do perceive me as such), but merely stating that I deeply value it as an ideal and try to align my ways of thought and actions as best as I can to it.

I seek to obtain expertise in mathematics and physics (particularly some domains of mathematics and mathematical physics) through continuous learning and deliberate practice, whilst I am willing to consider anything beyond the two if I find a complementary alternative which is also a reasonable approach based on empirical data (as deliberate practice is) or is just a necessary consequence of wanting to obtain expertise (as is "continuous learning" is).

I must note that I am currently in 10th grade institutionally. However, this barely dictates my actual level of skills particularly in mathematics and physics. Since 20 months, I have taken a conscious effort to learn what I must to achieve my goals beyond the traditional curriculum, and so I did. In this way, I really went from not being competent in even "9th grade algebra" to studying Calculus 6 months later. Currently, I am learning:

• Introductory Classical Mechanics
• Differential Equations
• Category Theory and Abstract Algebra
• Linear Algebra
• Introductory Statistics
• Introductory Real Analysis

I am "kind of competent but also not very competent" in all of these subjects but specific areas of Linear Algebra. But that was the point anyway, a fundamental aspect of deliberate practice is engaging in optimal challange, which I get to experience constantly (+ it suggests that I should actually ramp up the challange when it comes to Linear Algebra). The goal is not to look competent, but really be so in the end.

This initially grew out of a dissatisfaction with the memorization-focused approach in my country's education system, but I did not expect to have come this far, albeit I carefully planned to improve as efficiently as possible.

As for personal details, I generally follow unconventional paths, am a gender non-conforming cisgender and hetero-romantic demisexual male, and also have some interest in psychology and chemistry. Regarding my psychology interests, I extensively applied psychological research to shape my own learning process, particularly regarding the concept of deliberate practice among others. So my psychological interest might be more "applied" that theoretical.

I am here to be a part of a community of others who share similar interests in physics and mathematics and learn from others, as well as helping when I can. I am constantly learning, so whilst the topics I currently learn may make me appear intelligent for an autodidact, I stress the importance of not assuming so. Please judge me by my contributions themselves, instead of dismissing me for being an autodidact or assuming high intelligence due only to acknowledging my achievements.

 

[fresh_42]

Hello and !

This is quite a lot for studying at the same time and I cannot remember that I have ever seen category theory and statistics on the same list! Why in the world are you interested in category theory?

 

[EcSolticia]

Hello and !

This is quite a lot for studying at the same time and I cannot remember that I have ever seen category theory and statistics on the same list! Why in the world are you interested in category theory?

Haha, Thank you.

I am not learning all of them with the same level of priority so it is managable. For example, I prioritize category theory over statistics currently. I took on statistics to learn to evaluate empirical research methodologies in psychology, so much of which relies extensively on statistical methods, more critically and in an informed way.

As for my favourite beast, category theory, I am interested in it owing partially to its "unification power" in Algebra. I was initially trying to learn Group Theory, but coming accross examples of how these concepts relate to others and how we can formulate these relationships rigorously using Category Theory, I left the initial text on Group Theory for one that takes a Category-Theoretic Approach to Modern Algebra. I am generally a fan of abstractness, I would rather think about literal abstract nonsense than more specific mathematical objects whenver given the chance.