I wouldn’t call myself a mathematician; I’m simply curious about mathematics, just as I am about many other things. What fascinates me most about mathematics is its well-defined nature, the way almost everything can be precisely defined. In that spirit, I attempt here to define few things I find interesting and love to talk about.
What is sorrow?
If you ask me for an one liner, I would say: "Sorrow is the futile effort to save something that either cannot be saved, or perhaps was never worth saving".
But beneath this one liner lies a profound truth about human experience. From my experience, Sorrow often does not arise merely from loss, it is born from the resistance to loss, as if we have something to lose. It is the inner struggle to hold on to what is slipping away: a relationship that has already faded, a past that no longer exists, a version of ourselves we cannot return to. What I understand is, the pain is usually not in the vanishing of the sand, but in the clenching of our fists while the sand continues to fall through.
In the end, everything we love will slip away, that is the nature of life (or probably the life itself). Ultimately, living becomes an art of letting go. The only way to stay free from sorrow is to truly grasp this: everything fades, and so will you. Knowing this to your core, you can stop clinging and simply do what you love, for in the end, both you and your struggles will dissolve into forgetting.
Do you really need confidence?
I grew up as a boy who wasn’t very confident, so I understand why many people see confidence as everything. But when you think about it, confidence often feels more like a coping mechanism for dealing with fear. Take this example: when you’re just chatting with friends and there’s no fear involved, do you ever stop to think about whether you’re confident or not? Probably not. Confidence only seems to matter when fear shows up, like giving a presentation, where you’re worried about embarrassment or missing out on a promotion.
For me, “being confident” isn’t really much better than “being afraid”; okay...maybe slightly better in certain situations, but not by much. The real problem is fear. So instead of focusing on building confidence, I believe the goal should be to eliminate fear altogether. If you can reach a natural state where fear doesn’t creep in, you won’t even need confidence.