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So I decided to become a librarian instead. Boy did that make a difference. Not...
Then I moved into IT. At least it doesn't stop the conversation, but it inevitably moves it swiftly on to 'Ah, could you look at my computer? It's not working....'</HTML>
At least no-one has confused it with Astrology in a while. One of my (ex)co-workers made that mistake. 'Well, it's an 'ology', innit? So it must be a science, it must be true'..
<HTML>As Ooktavia says, maths is a beautiful subject. See G.H.Hardy's
"Mathematician's Apology"
I can appreciate the elegance of a maths proof as a work of art.
(Certainly much better than Tracy Emin's "Bed", for example.)
Going way back, there's nothing wrong with being a mathematician.
Just it tends to be a conversation killer. Either
'I can't do maths' / 'I never liked maths at school'
or worse, you end up in a long conversation about accountancy or
incredibly dull statistics.
Maths is <em>much</em> cooler than that.
I could tell you why the Flixborough disaster was so bad (and an
consequence of it being the BSE epidemic) or more recently
the King's Cross fire or even explain "spontaneous" combustion
which is anything but...
That's before I get onto any of the problems with fish stocks in the
North Sea.
Sorry. Waffling now. I'll get back to being flippant in another thread.
Much more fun !</HTML>