Classification of finite groups Updated +Created
As shown in Video "Simple Groups - Abstract Algebra by Socratica (2018)", this can be split up into two steps:This split is sometimes called the "Jordan-Hölder program" in reference to the authors of the jordan-Holder Theorem.
Good lists to start playing with:
It is generally believed that no such classification is possible in general beyond the simple groups.
Classification of finite rings Updated +Created
accounts for them all, which we know how to do due to the classification of finite fields.
So we see that the classification is quite simple, much like the classification of finite fields, and in strict opposition to the classification of finite simple groups (not to mention the 2023 lack of classification for non simple finite groups!)
Do one cool thing every day Updated +Created
If you are a pussy and work a soul crushing job, this is one way to lie to yourself that your life is still worth living: do one cool thing every day.
Find a time in which your mind hasn't yet been destroyed by useless work, usually in the morning before work, and do one thing you actually like in life.
Work a little less well for you boss, and a little better for yourself. Ross Ulbricht:
I hated working for someone else and trading my time for money with no investment in myself
Selling drugs online is not advisable however.
Even better, try to reach an official agreement with your employer to work 20% less than the standard work week. For example, you could work one day less every week, and do whatever you want on that day. It is not possible to push your passion to weekends, because your brain is too tired. "You keep all non-company-related IP you develop on that time" is a key clause obviously.
On a related note, good employers must allow employees to do whichever the fuck "crazy projects", "needed refactorings or other efficiency gains" and "learn things deeply" at least 20% of their time if employees want that: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20%25_Project. Employees must choose if they want to do it one day a week or two hours per day. One day per month initiatives are bullshit. Another related name: genius hour.
Video 1.
I did it for me, Skyler
. Source. Pursuing a dream part time can make you feel afraid and tired. But at least, you will feel alive.
Maybe you will be fired, but long term, having tried, or even succeeded your dream, or a one of its side effects, will be infinitely more satisfying.
The same goes for school, and maybe even more so because your parents can still support you there. Some Gods who actually followed this advice and didn't end up living under a bridge:
  • George M. Church "[We] hope that whatever problems... contributed to your lack of success... at Duke will not keep you from a successful pursuit of a productive career." Lol, as of 2019 the dude is the most famous biotechnologist in the world, those "problems" certainly didn't keep him back.
  • Freeman Dyson proved the equivalence of the three existing versions of quantum electrodynamics theories that were around at his time, and he has always been proud of not having a PhD!
    Video 2.
    Freeman Dyson - Why I don't like the PhD system (95/157) by Web of Stories (2016)
    Source.
  • Ramanujan, from Wikipedia:
    He received a scholarship to study at Government Arts College, Kumbakonam, but was so intent on mathematics that he could not focus on any other subjects and failed most of them, losing his scholarship in the process.
  • Person that Ciro met personally and shall remain anonymous for now for his privacy: once Ciro was at a bar with work colleagues casually, it was cramped, and an older dude sat next to his group.
    The dude then started a conversation with Ciro, and soon he explained that he was a mathematician and software engineer.
    As a Mathematician, he had contributed to the classification of finite simple groups, and had a short Wiki page because of that.
    He never did a PhD, and said that academia was a waste of time, and that you can get as much done by working part time a decent job and doing your research part time, since you skip all the bullshit of academia like this.
    Yet, he was still invited by collaborating professors to give classes on his research subject in one of the most prestigious universities in the world. Students would call him Doctor X., and he would correct them: Mister X.
    As a software engineer, he had done a lot of hardcore assembly level optimizations for x86 for some mathematical libraries related to his mathematics interests. He started talking microarchitecture with Ciro's colleagues.
    And he currently worked on an awesome open source project backed by a company.
    At last but not least, he said he also fathered 17 children by donating his sperm to lesbian mothers found on a local gay magazine, and that he had met most/all of those children after they were born.
    A God. Possibly the most remarkable person Ciro ever met, and his jaw was truly dropped.
Gandhi TODO source:
You can chain me, you can torture me, you can even destroy this body, but you will never imprison my mind
Formal proof is useless Updated +Created
The only cases where formal proof of theorems seem to have had actual mathematical value is for theorems that require checking a very large number of case, so much so that no human can be fully certain that no mistakes were made. Some examples:
Group of Lie type Updated +Created
In the classification of finite simple groups, groups of Lie type are a set of infinite families of simple lie groups. These are the other infinite families besides te cyclic groups and alternating groups.
A decent list at: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_finite_simple_groups, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_of_Lie_type is just too unclear. The groups of Lie type can be subdivided into:
The first in this family discovered were a subset of the Chevalley groups by Galois: , so it might be a good first one to try and understand what it looks like.
TODO understand intuitively why they are called of Lie type. Their names , seem to correspond to the members of the classification of simple Lie groups which are also named like that.
But they are of course related to Lie groups, and as suggested at Video "Yang-Mills 1 by David Metzler (2011)" part 2, the continuity actually simplifies things.
Specific values of the Busy beaver function Updated +Created
The following things come to mind when you look into research in this area, especially the search for BB(5) which was hard but doable:
The beauty of mathematics Updated +Created
Ciro Santilli intends to move his beauty list here little by little: github.com/cirosantilli/mathematics/blob/master/beauty.md
The most beautiful things in mathematics are results that are:
Good lists of such problems Lists of mathematical problems.
Whenever Ciro Santilli learns a bit of mathematics, he always wonders to himself:
Am I achieving insight, or am I just memorizing definitions?
Unfortunately, due to how man books are written, it is not really possible to reach insight without first doing a bit of memorization. The better the book, the more insight is spread out, and less you have to learn before reaching each insight.
Yang-Mills existence and mass gap Updated +Created
  • www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_qNKbwM_eE Unsolved: Yang-Mills existence and mass gap by J Knudsen (2019). Gives 10 key points, but the truly hard ones are too quick. He knows the thing though.
Video 1.
Yang-Mills 1 by David Metzler (2011)
Source.
A bit disappointing, too high level, with very few nuggests that are not Googleable withing 5 minutes.
Breakdown:
Video 2.
Millennium Prize Problem: Yang Mills Theory by David Gross (2018)
Source. 2 hour talk at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics. Too mathematical, 2021 Ciro can't make much out of it.
Video 3.
Lorenzo Sadun on the "Yang-Mills and Mass Gap" Millennium problem
. Source. Unknown year. He almost gets there, he's good. Just needed to be a little bit deeper.