List of Fives

As suggested by Maria Andersen (a.k.a. Busynessgirl), I’m going to take a few moments to answer these five questions, in order to reflect on how I’m using my skills.

1. What are your five biggest strengths?
Making connections between ideas, understanding other people’s perspectives, communicating (especially mathematics), critically analyzing arguments, enthusiasm

2. What are five things that you enjoy learning about?
Philosophy/theology, mathematics, music, new technology, different cultures

3. What are five topics you’d like to learn about that are unfamiliar to you?
Theories of learning, physical motivations for advanced mathematics, scripting languages (e.g., Python, Lisp, Perl), political history, dynamics of fluids & discrete flows

4. What are five skills or strengths that you’d like to get better at?
Creating multimedia presentations (video/animation), organizing conferences/workshops, getting students involved in group projects, speaking/reading several languages, focusing on one task to completion

5. What are your five favorite sources of inspiration? [books/websites/articles/poems/videos/songs]
Conferences, the arXiv, church, classical/modern music (I particularly like using Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony, Messiaen’s Turangalîla Symphony, or Górecki’s Symphony No. 3 to unwind at the end of a busy week), teaching

Under other circumstances, I might have listed coffee, orange juice, beer, wine, & whisky as my sources of inspiration. (I know, orange juice seems strange in that list, but it’s one of my favorite drinks. Have you ever been to Marrakech? Paradise.)