Other Stuff
This is a rather boring promotion either of my or other people's idiosyncrasies congruent with mine on the subject at hand.
On self-promotion
In March 2014 I received the DISC PhD Thesis Award 2013 (the award recognizes the best PhD thesis in the field of Systems and Control defended in a given year in the Netherlands). Read the RuG announcement or see the DISC Newsletter. A few photos from the Benelux Meeting on Systems and Control 2014 can be found here.
My place in the global academic family tree is right here.
I am naturally suspicious of people who pronounce my surname correctly. For those who do not speak any of the South Slavic languages (and are not working for secret services), my name is pronounced like this: /ˈmɑːkəʊ ˈʃɜˈʃliya/ [wav]
On research
Nothing is so profusely offered as advice, but Advice to a Young Mathematician from The Princeton Companion to Mathematics edited by Timothy Gowers might come handy.
In this modern world of job hunters, Uri Alon explains How to Choose a Good Scientific Problem.
In You and Your Research Hamming asks you: "Why are you not working on the most important problems in your field?"
In The Dignified Professor, even when undignified, Feynman is enlightening.
A Guide to Increased Creativity in Research - Inspiration or Perspiration? by Craig Loehle demonstrates a universal need for digestion and procrastination.
On writing
J.B.S. Haldane in How to Write a Popular Scientific Article on bringing science to working men and women.
Shewchuk in Three Sins of Authors in Computer Science and Math identifies some ideological mistakes in scientific writing.
Knuth, Larrabee, and Roberts in Mathematical Writing are as entertaining as informative.
A good paper is like cognac: prepared with care, matured in oak, and consumed with a full intellectual and sensory apparatus. Arieh Iserles on how to write a paper.
On reading
Considering the number of written books and scientific articles, and the current rate of publishing, a life span of a single person is insufficient to read them all. How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read is a facetious insight into how universities train us how to talk about publications without reading them. For an entertaining discussion on this subject glance at the NYPL's conversation between Bayard and Eco.
On presenting
Be suspicious of people who start their sentences with "thou shalt not" and try not to reduce your moral code to tablet form. When possible, violate Patterson's Bad Talk commandments.
Attending some conference talks could be classified as torture under the European Convention on Human Rights. Shewchuk gives his personal take on how to deliver a talk. De gustibus non est disputandum.
At a cocktail party, if you are lucky, you have three minutes to explain what is your research about. The Wordle might come helpful here, otherwise, it is cool and useless. Here is my cloud abstract.
On science
George Orwell's brilliant 1945 essay What is science? is every bit as relevant today as it was then. Scientific education is not the process of acquiring more facts, but rather the implanting of a rational, sceptical, and experimental habit of mind.
In the beautiful 1939 essay The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge, Abraham Flexner poignantly criticises the perennial disposition to forgo pure curiosity in favor of pragmatism. Today it is more evident than ever before that “with the rapid accumulation of ‘useless’ or theoretic knowledge a situation has been created in which it has become increasingly possible to attack practical problems in a scientific spirit.”
In The danger of science management, van Kampen eloquently pointed out how the management of today’s science might be one of the greatest threats to the science itself.
On mathematics
One always finds imbeciles to prove theorems, was R. Thom's principle. In the beautiful essay Polymathematics: is mathematics a single science or a set of arts? the great Vladimir Arnold cuts through the myths and among other things explains how mistakes are an important and instructive part of mathematics.
Some people do not understand the limits of the science's explanatory power. In fact, they do not understand the limits of its very language, mathematics, as R. Abraham explains it in The Misuse of Mathematics.
All reviews are biased and incomplete. In Mathematics in the 20th Century Atiyah neatly surveys some of the finest developments in the previous century.
In The Relation between Mathematics and Physics Dirac eloquently ponders on why the rules which mathematicians find interesting are the same as those which Nature has chosen.
Proselytization
Ghosts, spirits, fairy tales, the simulated universe hypothesis. I don't believe in that which is unfalsifiable.
In It from Qubit David Deutsch explains why the Great Simulator idea is a chimera.
Dawkins himself in the Viruses of the Mind best illustrates why I support The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science.
Frequently during college dinners someone will bring a question of the connection between quantum mechanics and philosophy. Dressing quantum mechanics in a mystical aura is a postmodern quasi-religious obscurantism for me. “Quantum mechanics is a perfectly logical, coherent physical theory, which can be understood rationally. The mysticism is theirs,” says Nico van Kampen in The scandal of quantum mechanics.
Despite the fact that already Aristotle knew that the behaviour of complex systems is not to be understood by extrapolation of the properties of a few particles, some physicists still believe in the theory of everything. PW Anderson in More is different succinctly addresses the limits of reductionism.
Ecology is the new opium for the masses, Zizek said. The mantra “every little helps” is a mass delusion as David MacKay pointed out in Sustainable Energy — without the hot air. The problem is, unfortunately, much more serious.
In On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs, David Graeber explains how a happy and productive population with free time on their hands is a mortal danger to the ruling class.
When in need
When faced with convoluted arguments I repeat to myself Keats’ "Beauty is truth, truth beauty, - that is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know." The same principle of beauty applies equally to Iliad, the King Lear, and the Dirac manifolds as can be concluded from the Heisenberg's poetically inspiring essay The Meaning of Beauty in the Exact Sciences.
When uncertain about what is happening out there I turn to Noam.
When in need of a dialectic insight into the ticklish relations between structuralism and nihilism I resort to Slavoj.
When dealing with inflated academic circumstances I remind myself of Taleb’s observation.
When disconnected from reality I turn to Whitman.
Ever since my early boyhood I have been living in places that I could not call my homeland. Being a foreigner has always been an integral part of my spiritual being. Occasionally, I find my solace in the thoughts of Hugh of Saint Victor.
Coffee
To my knowledge, Nick Jurich's Espresso from Bean to Cup is the most comprehensive treatise on to the art of espresso.
Dave Bayer's terse reflection on the crucial ingredients for a good home espresso can be found here.
Recreation
Mountains put me more down to earth than plains do. I find great fulfillment in hiking, mountaineering, and skiing.