A Mathematician’s Apology: Justification

This weekend, I began reading G. H. Hardy’s “A Mathematician’s Apology”. The essay is best known for the insight that it gives you into the mind of a mathematician. In it, Hardy is writing a defense of his life as a mathematician. Early on in the rather lengthy essay, he writes the following:

A man who sets out to justify his existence and his activities has to distinguish two different questions. The first is whether the work which he does is worth doing; and the second is why he does it, whatever its value may be.

Hardy says that, if you want to justify yourself, you have to answer the following questions:

1. Is what you are doing important?
2. Why do you do it?

If you cannot tell, I spend a lot of time trying to answer these two questions about myself. In the essay, Hardy states that the second question is a fairly easy one to answer but that the first is “is often very difficult, and the answer very discouraging”.

In this case, I want to justify my never-ending quest for more knowledge. So, let’s take the easy way out and answer the second question first. Why do I do it? Well, I study things simply because I enjoy it. My mind is like a sponge, soaking up new information, so it comes easy to me — it always has, much to my sister’s dismay (sorry Sis!). I like to be able to distill what I know down to the essentials and explain new concepts to people, not because I want to feel superior to them, but because I generally want to be able to share what I know with them and help them out if possible. Reading this, it sounds like I should go into teaching someday — that is a possibility I have considered once Em gets into college. Right now, I am having too much fun learning new things and applying them as an engineer. So, attacking the first question, is what I am doing important? Unfortunately, at this stage, I would say it is not. While I am spending a lot of time learning new things, I do not spend nearly enough time sharing them with other people. As Em gets older I am sharing more and more of my love of discovery with her. One of the things I most look forward to is working on Science Fair projects with her and helping to foster the same love of science that her mother and I share. As it is now, I try to answer her questions in ways that a 3 year old can understand.

Beyond fostering a love of learning in my daughter, what can I do to make what I do important? At this point, I would say learning how to share my knowledge more effectively with other people. Perhaps I finally need to get to the Toastmasters meetings that I have been meaning to attend. Writing here has helped give me a bit of an outlet. Are there any topics that people wish me to expound on?

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