JACK CAPSTICK-DALE

Exhortations.

It is a melancholy experience for a professional mathematician to find himself writing about mathematics. The function of a mathematician is to do something, to prove new theorems, to add to mathematics, and not to talk about what he or other mathematicians have done. Statesmen despise publicists, painters despise art-critics, and physiologists, physicists, or mathematicians have usually similar feelings: there is no scorn more profound, or on the whole more justifiable, than that of the men who make for the men who explain. Exposition, criticism, appreciation, is work for second-rate minds.
— G.H. Hardy's opening in A Mathematician's Apology.

How much do you consume relative to what you create?

There is something special about creating. Why is that?

One aspect is the moment of joy when things are working out. Writing an essay or programming an app or repairing an old car involves a host of tiny successes. These is often moments of clarity that These successes often take the form of some moment of clarity. There's also satisfaction in working against entropy. You've created something from nothing; an independent entity that contains your effort and essence. It's like having a photograph of happy times with your friends. The satisfaction is much greater if someone else uses your creation.

But most of the time you don't feel happy. My dominating sense is of being confused. There could be difficulty in articulating an idea, not understanding how your project works (or indeed why it isn't!) You're underwater and don't know which direction to swim for air. So why do it? Because it feels right. You're stretched to the limit of your capacity. You're alive and awake. Once you develop a taste for creating it's hard to stop.

G. H. Hardy had the taste for creating. But when I read A Mathematician's Apology, and his criticism of the critic (above), I felt he was missing something...

You think you fell out of a coconut tree?

Hardy gets caught up in the myth of the isolated genius, who's theorems flow ab initio from their mind. But no-one creates in isolation. There is no fallow ground in the arts and science. All has been tilled; the creator builds on what came before. All work that is creative and original involves explication and exposition and criticism and appreciation. Departures depart from somewhere. Connections are often made between bodies of work that are not visible to those who worked on them individually. This was the central tenet in my Natural Science degrees: discoveries are found in unexpected places, especially between fields. Original work comes from looking at problems from different angles.

Make something people want

A work's influence is downstream of its distribution. To what extent inherent value guarantees distribution? YCombinator's epic maxim is 'make something people want'. In a perfect free market distribution is a measure of merit. But that market is quixotic; indeed, it is almost a trope for brilliant works to nearly be undiscovered. Robert Pirsig was rejected by 121 publishers; Vermeer forgotten for two centuries. The relationship between value and distribution is not a law; there are undiscovered gems abound. Curation is therefore a worthwhile, and noble, pursuit. Genius creates, but taste preserves.

Curation is the gateway from consumption to creation

When I teach young children I get them to create a list of their favourite things. This ranges from books to games to their keyboard collection. I then ask them to explain why these objects are beautiful. Curation shifts a child's framing from the passive to the active. It's the pathway to encourage them to write their own stories, design games and build keyboards.

What happens when we're all creating and no-one is consuming? Well, no-one creates in isolation. We collect, expand, remix; become inspired and inspire others.

So, I hope to fill out a few short lists of things I like.

Do you have a good idea for another list? Let me know!