I'm about halfway through the transcript and will not pretend I understand more than one word in maybe a hundred since this is above my pay grade [1] and I was in high school the last time I read popular science on string theory, but it sounds very cool. Also, this is not a criticism of whoever produced the transcript because transcription is hard and it's much appreciated (I can't listen to the podcast right now because Joe is doing work at 9:30 p.m.), but "fifth route of unity" is the cutest math term typo ever. :)
[1] Probably not helping: I skipped complex analysis entirely, which was a big mistake, ditto the second semester of honors real analysis, because I hated real analysis so much. (I doubled up on abstract algebra instead.) Hilariously, years later, I have met another math major (except she got her bachelor's from MIT) who ALSO skipped complex analysis for the exact same reason.
I feel a little guilty in the sense that when I'm doing popular-math stuff I usually spend a lot more time talking about what string theory is to begin with and a lot less time talking about Hodge diamonds, but chatting with people who actually knew some geometry was seductive.
Evelyn made the transcript! I know because she emailed me to ask what word I was saying for "Fermats".
Complex analysis is so much prettier than real analysis. Everything just works and it's beautiful, plus you get a handful of ridiculous tricks for solving integrals as a bonus. (I took every first-year sequence my graduate program had except for real analysis, which means I know a surprising amount of geometry and functional analysis for someone who's officially an algebraist, but only the tiniest bit of undergrad measure theory.)
Everyone tells me that about complex analysis! I made a brief attempt to pick it up on my own with Tristan Needham's (non-rigorous) Visual Complex Analysis a few years back, but then my copy drowned and I gave up. :] I really wish I'd taken it in undergrad, but it's probably too late.
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[1] Probably not helping: I skipped complex analysis entirely, which was a big mistake, ditto the second semester of honors real analysis, because I hated real analysis so much. (I doubled up on abstract algebra instead.) Hilariously, years later, I have met another math major (except she got her bachelor's from MIT) who ALSO skipped complex analysis for the exact same reason.
*back to reading!~*
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Evelyn made the transcript! I know because she emailed me to ask what word I was saying for "Fermats".
Complex analysis is so much prettier than real analysis. Everything just works and it's beautiful, plus you get a handful of ridiculous tricks for solving integrals as a bonus. (I took every first-year sequence my graduate program had except for real analysis, which means I know a surprising amount of geometry and functional analysis for someone who's officially an algebraist, but only the tiniest bit of undergrad measure theory.)
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