@Jonas: Perhaps you could try phrasing it this way: there are adjectives that don't describe other adjectives and there are adjectives that do describe other adjectives (commonly called adverbs). One could make an adjective that means that an adjective doesn't describe another adjective (perhaps adjectivial?) and similarly for adverbs (adverbial?). Now...is "adjectivial" adjectivial? :P
I don't remember where I read something like that, but I sure remember it. :P
Hiya! Jonas: I always do that mistake when I used to have dates, to talk about mathematics too much. There was a time when I really was into GEB (Gödel, Escher, Bach) and talked a lot about it, so every girl I met for dating purposes got to hear my rants about it. Then I found a girl who actually, after I had my rants, bought the book, she's now my girlfriend!
If my opinion counts for anything, @Jonas: if you don't know the gal that well, Russell ain't exactly in the short list of "stuff I can casually talk about on a date". Anywho... sometimes you can get lucky like Dedalus, but after all this is effectively a lottery.
It's not wrong to be "too big a nerd", but you shouldn't be too surprised if it puts off dates either. As long as math doesn't carry the same level of "cred" (for whatever value of "cred") as, say, knowing the coolest party places, well...
But maybe someday you can have Dedalus's luck. In the meantime, carry on. ;)
Heh, we're now doing dating advice here? Before getting into a long discussion about technical subjects, make sure that one of the following two applies (a) your date/SO has shown interest already by having read some of D. Hofstader, Brian Hayes, the more pop-sci'ish Roger Penrose, or something similar; or (b) you've made sure to have her undivided attention for the next three hours (say, driving a rental with a broken radio in Connecticut on I95 S after Labour Day Weekend)
...ech, I can't stand GEB myself. I suppose it's really person-dependent. In my case, it was sorta easy to discuss geometry with a date with artistic aptitude.
"say, driving a rental with a broken radio in Connecticut on I95 S after Labour Day Weekend" - and what's to stop her from tuning you out? ("I'm in my happy place; this guy isn't blabbering loudly, lalala...") ;)
@WillieWong I really don't think this is all that necessary. You just need to talk about mathematics with such passion that she'll get sucked right into the conversation. I've done that with random chicks, dates and even random conversations with people who despise math.
I once talked to this girl I knew briefly during the army service, and I explained to her the axiom of choice, Zorn's lemma, and the well ordering principle. I also explained how they are sort of equivalent.
The point is, in a nutshell, that you have to talk about it with this sort of spark in your eyes that says that you will give your life and soul to find a proof that PFA is consistent relatively to something weaker than a supercompact cardinal.
I worked for several hours trying to write a proof from ZF, but then I remember that this is a case of "try to show it can happen", so instead I went for an explicit construction :D
I remember once seeing a recipe on some government office page, as an attempt to show how great our cuisine can be. Oh lordy loo, that was the worst recipe I have ever seen for shakshuka :-)
Since most people's parents and grandparents came from abroad only 30-60 years ago, a lot of the cooking still has traditional roots. However things are starting to mix up into something with less of a concrete identity. Hopefully in 10-15 years the Israeli cuisine will have a rigid face and identity.
So far every national food in Israel was "stolen" from some other nation. Except Bamba and Ptitim.
Hummus is great... but most people don't know how to prepare it so it's not so good.
Somehow I always get around into cleaning the pipes with it when I'm only in my underwear or so... safety equipment is for chumps who rely on something other than luck!
