I interviewed a mathematician for the first time! Henry Segerman and I had a great chat about his 3D-printed mathematical art and lots of other interesting and personal topics (see the full interview here)
Interesting links
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Henry Segerman’s website and awesome YouTube channel
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See Henry’s art piece on the donut-coffee mug topology joke on YouTube and Shapeways
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See his Borromean hairpins on YouTube, Shapeways, and Thingiverse – they were the first thing I 3D-printed, featured in my math day 9 video)!
Personal check-in
Today I woke up feeling so unbelievably tired, probably because I’ve only slept about 5 hours for the last couple nights. I felt sick all over again, even though I had just recovered! So after lying in bed the first half of the day, I edited last night’s interview footage and spent the evening with my family.
I didn’t study any math or do any practice problems today, but I did talk my parents’ ears off about math over dinner! Not only did they not mind, but they found it interesting! They both tried to solve the Borromean hairpins puzzle after watching my video blog) that was inspired by them.
I’m definitely enjoying this math month adventure, but after 11 days straight of math-studying and video-making (last weekend I didn’t take a proper break or even leave my apartment because I was sick), I realize that now I really need a long rest! But I still have more work to do on a paid website project that I’m doing on the side, so I won’t get a lazy weekend just yet.
I’m reaching the point now where I’ve gained enough confidence that I can finally say I have no doubt whatsoever that I am indeed capable of making a video every day and “putting myself out there”, as the saying goes. And that is awesome! I’m proud of myself!
I’ve published a video every day for 72 days in a row! And now that I’m not constantly doubting myself or worrying that I’ll give up on the project, I find myself thinking about more and more ambitious projects that I want to try. Every day I find myself thinking, “If only I had just one more day to make this video!”
I want to do more. I want to make more polished videos, I want to write scripts that are more than just a first draft, and I want to spend more time fine-tuning how to tell a story or how to teach a concept! And I miss having normal weekends with a real break from work. And I’m falling behind on my other goals, like making more friends in real life and growing Learn to Code LA (the programming meetup group I founded earlier this year). I also really miss having a full day every once in a while to just do nothing.
But I commited to making video blogs for 100 days in a row, so I’ll stick to it until then. Who knows, maybe before day 100 I’ll decide that I want to keep going! But probably not. I never intended to do this daily video thing forever! I’ll probably try every other day or three times a week for a while, and then my guess is I’ll eventually settle on once a week.
I just wanted to make sure I didn’t quit on thsi daily goal until I could be certain that I was quitting for the right reason: to better acheive my goals, not simply to avoid what scares me. I think now I’m finally certain.
I’m thinking less about fear and more about what I want to do and what I want to create. This is an amazing feeling! It’s downright magical to fall asleep each night brainstorming about exciting ideas instead of ruminating on past traumas or future fears.
For now my challenge is to just make it through the next couple weeks without letting the stress get in the way of keeping this project fun. Once I wrap up a couple other projects before Christmas, I should have breathing room again to relax and end the year on a high note. And I already have more projects lined up for early January! Well, I may be feeling stressed out, but at least I don’t have to worry about being bored. ;)
Time breakdown
- Video production time: 4 hours 35 min
- Script writing/preparation: none
- Filming/setup: 42 min
- Video editing: 3 hours 30 min
- Publishing: 33 min
- Math study time: none