day twelve started with a huge up and down. the first event was a talk with one nyu math professor, where i told him about the hedge fund and he just seemed really sad -- i think he had had visions of hiring me to take over his lineage (he's on the verge of retirement.)

i guess i just told you about the hedge fund. i'm probably working for a hedge fund starting december 1st.

anyway, that was the first time that i had actual doubts about it. i went up to the 13th floor lounge, where i was slated to meet with another professor, and stared out into space thinking. really sad -- not so much about leaving math as about making him sad, because he's a really good guy who clearly feels very pqternal towards me.

i'm not fixing typos while here; hopefully you can deal with it in exchange for a steady stream of mundane blog entries.

but anyway, i met with the other professor, who said that this was a perfectly reasonable thing to do and that if i didn't like it quickly i could certainly come back to academia. but then, fortunately, something happened that made me even more sure about my decision: he started talking about math. and i was sort of interested, but ... not really, to be honest. and i realized that i couldn't do that for the rest of my life; at the very least i need a break, and at the very most it's just not what i want to do anymore. it's been a good long-term relationship, but i don't think it's terminal. and like most relationships which end, we should probably have broken up a couple of years ago./

after this dynamic start, the end of the day was more or less uneventful; i relaxed as much as is humanly possible here. day twelve.

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