Let’s get the book club out of the way first. There was quite a bit of interest in reading Terry Pratchett’s Hogfather this holiday season, so, let’s meet to discuss it December 19th or 20th. I’ll put up a post here and maybe even experiment with an embedded chat feature. Does either of those dates work better for people?
Onwards!
My uncle Bill has led a very eclectic life. Born a poor Nebraska dirt farmer, he would try jobs like continuing to farm; bluffing his way into teaching Lotus to inmates; racehorse training; graduate studenting; and running a beef jerky business. But it seems he’s finally found his calling, as a math professor at UT Austin. He just won their Outstanding Teacher Award, which comes with a five-figure prize and a great article in UT News.
He’s not a natural math prodigy, but he is pretty damn persistent. When he started graduate school to defer his student loan payments, he wasn’t doing so well, until a professor pulled him aside and offered him an assistantship.
“That summer I went home and farmed like I usually did. In the fall, I retook the courses, but now everything was clear.” Wow, I get it, he recalls thinking. But something else happened. “Everything in my life changed: The way I worked on cars — I became a way better mechanic. The way I worked with my horses — I finally became smarter than my horses. The way I farmed — everything I did I was better at, not because I saw equations but because of the way my brain started thinking and solving problems. It wasn’t just math problems — it was everyday problems.
[…] Everything changed, and I credit it to mathematics. I could solve problems for the first time in my life. Sure, there’s great value in things mathematicians do, but the greater value of mathematics to society is how it changes the way people think about everyday problems, from raising children to working on cars to working with horses.
His humble background, and productive struggle, are probably part of why he’s such a good teacher–he’s a walking advertisement for the growth mindset, and he isn’t shy about it.
A history with farming has led him to focus on applied math in biological systems. He’s always gone where his interests led him–and it’s so wonderful that he’s found, and leveraged into a career, the synergy between them.
But his love of teaching is paralleled by robust research interests, and virtually all of his publications have been in math biology. “For 35 years of my life, I sat on my tractor. That gave me good insights into insects and spiders, because they’re a big part of agriculture.”
One example he gives of math biology involves climate change. Moose populations in New Hampshire are declining because ticks, which in great enough numbers can kill moose, are thriving due to shorter winters. One of his research groups has created models for how the date of a first snowfall can affect the moose population. The “stochastic” model introduces the element of randomness to simulate the variability of the first snowfall each year.
It feels a little weird to be proud of an older family member like this, but here we are. I think it’s because we’re so similar. We both bounced around life trying to find direction, and have had our share of struggles, but we eventually each figured out how to turn an interest in computer science into a fulfilling life, even if we aren’t the greatest at it. He’s even the family member I most look and sound like.
So, three cheers for uncle Bill!
Who are some family members you are proud of?
Open Thread: President-Elect Biden Thanksgiving Address Bonus: Pets
KayInMD (formerly Kay (not the front-pager))
I have flour & butter on my hands, I’m making pie crust, but I just wanted to jump on to say, you don’t have to believe in God to be comforted and uplifted by Joe Biden’s faith. His speech made my Thanksgiving.
Back to your topic.
Aleta
Fantastic story about Bill. Good to be proud of the older family ppl while they’re alive instead of realize later how great they were (as I did).
satby
Your Uncle Bill sounds like a great guy.
Martin
Agree with KayInMD. I’m a non-believer, but I’ve always been a bit envious of people who are faithful – particularly in the manner that Joe is. Religion (or non) should be personal and private. If you feel the need to proselytize, you’re doing it wrong (that goes for non-believers as well).
My pie crust making starts after lunch. I’ve run the last 25 thanksgivings, I could do this in my sleep now.
Old School
I had a teacher in high school that would tell students when they said they’d never have to know geometry in real life: “I’m not teaching you geometry. I’m teaching you how to think!”
Bluegirlfromwyo
Uncle Bill sounds like a fascinating guy who I’d love to have his beverage of choice with.
My husband had a similar career path. Majored in painting in college, became a graphic artist but always played drums in rock bands on the weekends. Then he learned guitar and started writing songs and everything changed. He started playing Irish music full-time and picked up tenor banjo and mandolin. Now that no one plays out anymore because covid, he’s writing haiku. I’m proud of him.
Martin
The US doesn’t understand how important teaching is to learning. You can’t really learn something until you teach it.
Wag
I am proud of my daughter, who has plugged away at her interest in forensic anthropology, got a job as a curator at a natural history museum, and expanded it into a career that takes in all life forms, from vertebrates to invertebrates.
SiubhanDuinne
That’s as fine a career path as I’ve ever seen. Cool-sounding guy. Congratulations to Uncle Bill on his OTA.
Major Major Major Major
Today in face eating leopards
OzarkHillbilly
I’d love to meet your Uncle Bill.
Betty Cracker
I also had a cool Uncle Bill. He was my great uncle, the brother of my maternal grandmother. He had a law degree but never practiced. He worked for the health department in Tampa, but I’m not quite sure what he did there. In his garage, he had every National Geographic magazine from the mid-1930s to the 1980s, so that was fascinating — you could get lost in those stacks of magazines.
He used to hang around with people who flew ultralight aircraft and help them work on their homemade planes. I expressed an interest in it, and he got his friend to take me up for a ride. It was like riding a bicycle 400 feet off the ground — exhilarating and terrifying at the same time. When we landed, I asked Uncle Bill if he was afraid the first time he went up in an ultralight, and he said he’d never been up in one because it was too scary! He just liked the camaraderie of the ultralight people.
He tried to learn Spanish when he was in his early 80s and went down to Mexico to immerse himself in the language but promptly got robbed and had to come home. When he died midway through his 80s, hundreds of people came to his funeral, and we found out he had all these interests and contacts and friends we knew nothing about. A lady from the Spanish class read a poem she’d written about him called “Don Guillermo.” I still miss him.
Major Major Major Major
@Betty Cracker: what a life!
Capri
I know although we’re not related to a person with this career path: Went to medical school and then did a residency in pathology to become a boarded pathologist. After realizing that much of her research involved comparative pathology went to veterinary school to learn the pathology of other species. While in vet school met and then fell in love with cows. Is now a dairy farmer.
Renie
I love this Uncle Bill story. His speaking of the connection between learning leading to critical thinking in all areas is great. Not being able to think critically is, IMO, a big issue in the US. Too many people denigrate education not realizing that thinking skills are important in all areas of life not just in a classroom.
RedDirtGirl
Congrats to your uncle! I I’ve never read any Pratchett, but I just downloaded Hogfather from the library, so maybe I’ll stop by the discussion.
Aleta
I have some farming diaries from my mom’s family members from the 1870s-1890s. The brothers had a little building where they tried to study electricity, but like lots of farmers they were also doing science-type things recording temperature, rain, frost, sun (a hundred years later diaries like that gave some climate change data) and plantings, yields, and new equipment. When I looked at the farming journals the farm subscribed to before/after WW1, I realized (prob everyone else knows this) how farming was part of the practice of early science. Eventually all the brothers in the last generation of farmers on that farm escaped to the city, leaving only one (a talented league baseball player, artist and political cartoonist) to care for the farm and old people. He didn’t like farming but the story is that he “made games out of the work and made it fun for his children.”
SiubhanDuinne
@Betty Cracker:
Wow! Talk about a life worth living!
SiubhanDuinne
@Capri:
I love that!!
(ETA: Although I am forced to confess I first read “boarded pathologist” as “bearded pathologist,” and experienced a moment of puzzlement.)
Poe Larity
Great that the kids at UT have such a great teacher. Following in the footsteps of the infamous Dr. Guy.
cmorenc
I agree from personal experience with the discovery of the profound generic benefits to my practical problem-solving ability that is a corollary of learning a math-intensive discipline. Before I went back to college in my mid-30s to earn a Twin BS in both electrical engineering and computer science, I was a practicing lawyer concentrating in criminal defense and domestic relations – though I kept my bar membership in good standing until I went inactive in my late 60s, my last time practicing law was a part-time gig while going back to college for CS/EE.
While I find the mental approach to things learned in law school still useful where legal analysis is usevul, IMHO my engineering and computer science classes actually developed more useful practical problem-solving skills applicable in a much broader array of situations, even outside things that are any sort of technical areas. Learning to understand how math works beyond just a rote tool is a generally mind-broadening experience.
SiubhanDuinne
@Aleta:
How absolutely fascinating! I don’t mean to stick my nose in where it doesn’t belong, but I hope you have considered eventually making these available to a university or institute where they might be studied by future historians.
Mathguy
I was two years ahead of him at UNL as an undergrad. I know his advisor, David Logan, pretty well, and he’s an extremely nice guy and this story is a perfect reflection of that. It’s wonderful to read a story about someone discovering their love of mathematics and wasn’t some prodigy. Thanks for sharing this.
neldob
Thanks. My brother was held back in school and we thought he was maybe slightly dim, then later in life became a award winning geologist. It was good he had family support through the hard times because the geology wiz might not have made it over the rocks and up the mountain. There were hard times, never the less, persistence furthers.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
Hogfather is definitely a contender for my favorite Terry Pratchett novel. And there’s lots of competition!
It has everything you could want in a TP novel. I love it.
Ruckus
Being the greatest at something is very nice. Having worked in pro sports for decades, as an event official for 20 years and then full time for 11 working for the sanctioning body as, well, the all around boy, you get to see and know champions and a lot of competitors. Being great and top of your field can be very rewarding but it is easy to lose sight of the reality, that the top is a very narrow and steep place and second is, well, second. The point is that there is a much larger world, one that every one else occupies and being very good at something is still pretty damn satisfying, with a lot less drama and sacrifice. Also it seems to be a lot more fun.
Major Major Major Major
@Mathguy: oh how cool! I assume you didn’t know each other though?
RedDirtGirl
@Formerly disgruntled in Oregon: Is it a stand-alone novel, or will I be lost, not having read his other work?
Betty Cracker
I am hopelessly stupid at math and probably would have been unable to get through college if my sister hadn’t tutored me in the required algebra classes. I found I can retain formulas, etc., long enough to regurgitate in exams, but it’s like carrying an angry, hissing porcupine, and I put it down as soon as I have no need of it and go on my innumerate way, happier for being unencumbered by that burden. I admire people who are mathematically inclined, but math always has been and always will be a foreign language to me.
Major Major Major Major
@RedDirtGirl: Terry was quite good at including enough context, but it couldn’t hurt to read up on discworld in general (skim wiki) and the plots of Mort, Reaper Man, and Sourcery (also skim wiki—just to get an appreciation of character background)
Obvious Russian Troll
@Martin:
I’m in the club too.
I had a friend in college who was an Ayn Rand-reading College Republican. After we graduated, he came out, which was not exactly a surprise, but a few years after that he started studying for the ministry–which was a surprise.
However, having seen the community and having watched him at work I understand now. I think the community aspect is what I envy the most.
LAO
Trump just issued a full pardon for Flynn
Another Scott
Great stories. Thanks everyone.
Human family people I admire are people like her, who take the time to educate Nate and all of us with too much privilege and not enough understanding of what others go through:
Cheers,
Scott.
raven
@Betty Cracker: I managed to get a doctorate and only took ONE stats class and that was in my M Ed program!
Betty Cracker
@raven: Wow, amazing! I was an English major and only have a bachelor’s degree, but I still had to take algebra I and II. Believe me, I tried to squirm out of it. :)
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Major Major Major Major: I think the BBC did an abridged audio play of Mort that’s online
Aleta
@Betty Cracker: Your Uncle Bill sounds wonderful too.
Apparently my gr grandfather and uncles on that farm built big kites and tried to build a flying machine (prob a glider) in their barn, influenced by their American Inventor magazines and stories about Gustave Whitehead whose experimental flights were in their area. Their plane didn’t get off. Kites were a thing to experiment with then, I guess. Farmers in their time were inclined toward farming inventions and discoveries. I bet a lot of old barns were full of weird tries at inventions.
J R in WV
I too had an Uncle Bill, whom I am proud of. Before WW II, in order to not go underground in the mines, but still to contribute to the family well-being, he drove a neighbor’s farm product into town — moonshine, a corn and yeast product. He delivered it to the men’s clubs which were so common back then, Odd Fellows, Owls, Moose, Elks, etc.
Then he worked hard to prep for joining the Army Air Corps, math beyond what coal-country schools, and became a turret-gunner on heavy bombers in the South Pacific. I learned most of this about him from my cousin, for Uncle Bill never uttered a word about his war. He woke up screaming in the wee hours for the rest of his life, all you need to know about the heavy bomber war from Guam to Burma.
Uncle Bill’s silver wings were in my mom’s jewelry case when my parents were gone, all tarnished — he gave them to his little sister, from whom they went to my cousin, who values them highly.
IN peacetime he became a real-estate executive for Esso — now Exxon, until one day they had him attend a meeting where they let him go. He had bought all the real estate they needed for their push to have giant fuel stops properly distanced on the Interstate Highway system.
He never burned another drop of Esso gas. Thrived in the real estate biz, though! I don’t use Esso gas either, as a rule. Not that the other fuel giants are any different!
Will be reading Hogfather soon, it is on my tablet. Have read a lot of Pratchett in the distant past, so think it will make good sense to me.
Kristine
Either Hogfather discussion date works for me.
OzarkHillbilly
I know I’m not the first to say this, but you have a way with words, Betty.
OzarkHillbilly
@LAO: Good, now he’ll have to testify against trump.
Steve in the ATL
Some of you know my Uncle Bill, who was born a wealthy Mississippi cotton farmer, though he never farmed a day in his life. He failed out of or was kicked out of various prep schools and universities, and ended up teaching a class at Harvard. You just never know!
Major Major Major Major
@J R in WV: my great grandpa (Nebraska side) used to ride shotgun on hooch delivery runs, if family lore is to be believed.
Aleta
@SiubhanDuinne: I think there are lots of those type around (they’re pretty dry) but I do plan to go to the historical society in that town to ask. My mother and aunt gave it most of the stuff of interest to them. I have one diary from a trapper and a one-year diary from around 1867 from a seamstress (chronicling shirt orders, quilting and sleighing parties and her encounters with a guy she loved who jilted her at the end of the diary). She never mentions anything about the War or current events (she did keep a daguerreotype of Lincoln and Mary Todd). I’d love to show the diaries to you if we can ever meet.
J R in WV
@Betty Cracker:
I’m totally not a math guy, but took Trig, Calc 1, Calc 2, Calc 3 and discrete Math, a total of 19 hours of math for my BsCs degree.
With math majors! Made a B in Calc 3, pretty proud of that. Was really, really hard for me.
OzarkHillbilly
@Major Major Major Major: My grandfather lost my fathers brand new sled that he’d just got for Xmas on an icy hill while trying to make a delivery of hootch.
J R in WV
@Major Major Major Major:
Uncle Bill carried the family pistol, a Colt .32 hammerless automatic, on his runs, to protect himself from hoodlums willing to steal a load of White Dog from a driver. I have fired that pistol, it’s a hundred years and works like new. IIRC Browning’s first commercial pistol design success, a famous arms guy.
Very jealous of my cousin, who keeps it in his bank safety deposit box, a wise thing as his house burned fall a year ago! Our Grandma carried it in her apron pocket while keeping her country general store!
Nora Lenderbee
@Major Major Major Major: A face eating leopard would be a lot better than a leopard eating faces.
What’s the paragraph in the middle about “economic leftists”?
Major Major Major Major
@J R in WV: I have got a wild story about my totally-not-a-spy great uncle and what would become the family handgun, but I’ll save it for another time.
Mathguy
@Major Major Major Major: No. I was done with undergrad math courses after my sophomore year and took grad courses my last two years, so I didn’t know many undergrad math majors.
WaterGirl
@Major Major Major Major: You should save that for a book!
Aleta
@Another Scott:
I was really surprised to see that attitude. (That being alarmed at and even discussing what Republicans were doing was defeatist, or alarmist and negative, or equal to assuming Trump would succeed). Especially to see it here, since disinformation and its damage have been an important topic esp when Russia was involved. The GOP pulled off a serious and racist disinformation campaign that will be around for quite awhile. I haven’t seen that recognized much yet.
trollhattan
oops, wrong thread
Aleta
@OzarkHillbilly: That’s a great story. Two fisherman brothers I knew (long gone now) told stories about how the younger one took the older one’s new sled (he’d saved up for) and wrecked it; took the older one’s new bike (he’d saved up to buy) and wrecked it; took the older one’s new pair of pants (he’d bought to go out on a date) and ruined them. They never talked about this part but the older one’s wife told me once: She was being courted to marry by the younger one, but then his boat was in a storm. He made it to Canada and it took him months to get home. The older brother had married her.
Major Major Major Major
@Aleta: wow! Lol
BruceFromOhio
SisterFromNewYork is a testament to hard work, sticking to your guns, and treating everyone with respect even when they absolutely do not deserve it. She runs a segment of a sales business so successfully, it is far and away the most profitable for the company, and she does it almost single-handedly. Her customers send her Christmas gifts, birthday gifts, Kentucky Derby gifts, accolades beyond count. To a person, her friends that I have met are solid call-me-in-the-middle-of-the-night-if-you-need-to citizens who love each other unconditionally, and have a great time partying together (although… not lately). When we get together at my folks, it’s a festival of food, wine, and endless conversation. The YAfromOhio’s look up to and respect their auntie, and take note of her life’s lessons as a measure of success in their own.
I’m one lucky brother to have a sister like SisterFromNewYork.
Sloane Ranger
I’m proud of my father. He worked his way up from a clicker in a shoe factory to senior management. On his way up he helped design and make boots for elephants , one of which is on display at our County museum and spent 2 years setting up a shoe factory in Northern Ireland at the height of the Troubles, flying home every Friday night to spend weekends with us and flying back Monday mornings.
I’m also proud of my Grandfather, he fought in WWI, spent over a year as a POW, worked any job he could find to put food on the table during the Depression and, I didn’t find this out until well after he’d died and I started to research my family history, was congratulated by a judge for his calmness and leadership in managing the scene of an unexplained death until the police arrived. He felt no need for boasting or bluster. It was just what you did.
Original Lee
I love this story about Bill! Math for the win!!
In this vein, the relative of whom I am most proud is my mother’s mother. Her husband, my mother’s father, died at age 52, leaving her only the income from his life insurance policy payout. She decided to become a stockbroker and with the support of a family friend, not only managed to complete all of the requirements successfully, but also was hired by a mid-size brokerage and worked there for 15 years. Her specialty was elderly ladies, and her “girls” took very good care of her, as she took good care of them.
dnfree
This story is fascinating to me, because the same thing happened to me, although fortunately at a much younger age. I was never good at math until I took geometry, which way back then was sophomore year of high school. I was so good at geometry that when I had advanced algebra the next year I got that too, which I had not fully understood the first time. So I majored in math.
My sophomore year of college (summer of 1965) I was able to get into the FORTRAN II programming class my college had just added, which was very popular. The first few weeks I had no idea what was going on or what we were doing. I felt stupid and panicky. And then suddenly it just clicked and I fell in love with the field I spent my entire working career doing. And like your uncle, I think it changed the entire way I think and problem-solve. I honestly don’t know what else I would have done for a job if computers hadn’t been invented.