["My Life As a Quant"]

Still a couple of chapters away from life as a quant, ('the nonkosher category violators of Wall Street, half-breed players'). If he didn't talk about some of the books he read during his post-doc years, the narrative would have been even more, um, uneventful.

The author stated somewhat defensively that he became a follower of Rudolf Steiner after reading his "Knowledge of the Higher Worlds". His Wiki entry includes this sentence: 'Franz Kafka gave what, from his own literary perspective, was perhaps the highest compliment, calling Steiner's mystery plays 'incomprehensible' (or something similar).', and that seems to be enough for me. Also within Steiner's sphere of influence: Saul Bellow, Kandinsky, Arthur Dove, Arshile Gorky.

Freud's relevancy to this book is dubious, but it's somehow gratifying to know that, according to Bruno Bettelheim's "Freud and Man's Soul", Freud used resonant and easily accessible terms - I, It and AboveI (Ich, Es, Uber-Ich), and it was his translator who coined the faux-medical 'id', 'ego' and 'superego'.

Owen Barfield's "History in English Words" might be worth checking out; it doesn't hurt to learn of one more woman mathematician - Sonya Kovalevskaya.

__ Physics students argue about whether Lee or Yang was a better physicist, discussing the ancient epic feats of bygone heroes they way that the animals in the final chapter of The Wind in the Willows reminisce about the fabled exploits of Mr. Toad and his friends.
__ Gell-Mann: Nature operated on the Totalitarian Principle that states, "Everything not forbidden is compuslsory."
__ His colleague said of himself: sadly but accurately, that he was one of those people who became much nicer when they had troubles.

mefi quote, no. 9

The best things in life are lawsuits waiting to happen.
posted by warbaby at 10:06 PM PST on April 30
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It must be awfully chilly under those wet blankets.
posted by shmegegge at 4:16 PM PST on May 6
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The flow of information processed within ecosystems such as the Great Barrier reef dwarfs that of the human mind by a few orders of magnitude. But we have not seen the spontaneous development of self-aware reefs.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 1:41 PM PST on May 6
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Is it possible to make a mockery out of a joke?
posted by mrgrimm at 10:09 AM PST on May 7

(05/07/05 is quite a good day on Mefi. Actually, quite the best one in months.)