Sirawit Pongnakintr

สิรวิชญ์ พงศ์นคินทร์

Back to the main page

Why do I choose to study Math/CS?

Before answering that question, let me declare that my view towards mathematics is aligned to mathematical platonism. This is in contrast to some of my friends' views that mathematics is constructed by humans, or that mathematics is just a convenient tool to solve problems. For me, it is more that just a construction or a tool. Mathematics is a realm of unknowns and their connections. The study of mathematics deserves its own purpose, independent of technological advances and independent of applications. However, this doesn't restrict my goals to studying only the pure mathematics. Sometimes I also study mathematics for its applications.

One can characterize my "reason to study" as a combination of simply two things:

• I solve problems because they are fun to think about. It's like a puzzle game where I can spend time thinking on solutions to the puzzle. This is the same reason as why I like to play puzzle games, and this is more CS-oriented.
• I study deeper mathematics because I want to uncover the underlying truth. I want to know more about something that I don't know. It's fun when I learn something I don't understand before. This is the reason why I study topics in pure math.

Seeing open problems and conjectures, these two motivations push me forward to think about things and to go try solving them for fun (even if I almost always failed).

Stupidity doesn't stop me from doing math. I may try and I may fail. And at least I'm proud to fail rather than not even give it a try. I dare to dream. To be a great mathematician who stands alongside the frontiers of humanity. And even if I fail, I'd rather die trying hard.