Back In the Indefinite Hessian Matrix

...that is, back in the saddle, ha ha. My major seems to be much more mathematics than econ, and it's odd to be suddenly doing so much math again after so many years of hardly doing any at all. There are some peculiarities of a math-intensive field of study that I had almost forgotten about:

- Nobody knows what you're talking about. People studying law, development economics, the politics of biotechnology, etc., can all get a pint at the end of the day and chat with people outside their field about what they're studying. After trying to strike up a conversation at a pub about the different probibalistic senses in which infinite sequences of random variables can converge, I can tell you this is a luxury econometricists don't have. It can feel isolating at times.

- Doing math is a physical pleasure. This may sound odd, but for me, anyway, there's something about the intensity of the concentration when I work on math problems that leaves me feeling as tired and energized afterwards as working out does. I guess not everyone gets this, but I'm sure some of you do.

- Math is like a crack habit for one's ego. In math contexts, my pride is completely manic-depressive. If I can work elegantly through a difficult problem, I can go for days congratulating myself on how very, very smart I am, only to be utterly crushed by giving the wrong answer to a problem in a lecture and leave wondering if I should even be studying at university at all. It's an irrational, emotional response that I find difficult to control and which no other endeavor brings out me to the same degree.

I wonder how common these feelings are among other mathy types of people.