@amWhy hello!

@amWhy I agree that the site couldn't function (at least not well) without its dedicated users.

@quid Hey, sorry for venting in my last comments to you. I hope your day is going well thus far.

@amWhy no worries. Ultimately it's not the worst thing that my absence is noted and seen as a negative. :-) Today is alright, yesterday was very hectic. I'll still need to catch up on some things that stayed unfinished yesterday but it should be considerably more calm.

@quid Glad for you for that!

@quid True. After all, I could have posted, "Wow it seems quid is pretty busy right now. Thank Goodness, cuz it keeps him off the site!!" :P

Funny thing I've noted. Very often, when intending to write "request", my fingers take over, out of habit, and I end up writing "requestion"! :-)

@quid You know what a question addressed to you is called? "A quidtion"! ;D

@amWhy indeed! That'd be more disconcerting.

@amWhy I know similar effects.

@quid This site needs you too much, so I don't ever anticipate saying any such thing. :-)

@amWhy I see. And if I formulate a guideline it's a quideline?

@quid You're catching on! :-)

Actually I made that typo once on MO and somebody got very agitated about it. I don't even know why.

@quid Which: requestion, or quideline?

@amWhy the latter. Or maybe it was quidline.

@quid And if you ever get frustrated with a user over-editing their post, or persisting in comments, you, and you alone, can write: "Just quid it, already!"

@amWhy when I left MO somebody posted "quid quit" or something like this.

@quid Some people have too little tolerance over simple typos. But, I can relate. I've found myself writing my first name as amWhy, in emails!

@quid What a fool, whoever said that. You have been an asset everywhere you've invested yourself on SE.

@amWhy I think they thought I meant to convey a subtle point; but I don't know which one.

@amWhy it was posted in a more friendly spirit than I might have made it sound. At least it was half-way friendly.

@quid That's what's tough about internet communication; it's hard to decipher the delivery. We can't see facial expressions during delivery, or intonation. So intent is hard to glean.

@quid Sounds quite positive, actually.

I remember that post, @quid. You linked me to it back in 2016. I find it overwhelmingly complimentary, the meta post as a whole.

@quid But I really don't "get" the speculation of any sort of "performance". So yes, I get that the message is rather confusing.

@amWhy yes it was a bit a mixed message.

@quid Any discussion among mods and the CMs about when to hold the election this summer. I'd prefer sooner rather than later summer. I can fill you in on my reasons for that preference, but not here in a public chat.

@amWhy I think it'll be end of July and/or early August.

@quid That would be wonderful. I'd prefer the process begin at the end of July, so that the actual election takes place mid August.

@amWhy I think that's the most likely scenario.

@quid Great. No, this is not about what works for me as a potential candidate, because I will not nominate myself. I just want the process to be a little smoother than last time around.

I mean the outcome of the last election was as good as I could have hoped. But there were some glitches in the process, and one particularly loud critic.

@amWhy I saw you declined already when somebody brought it up here.

@quid Yes. It is simply not realistic. And I know that.

It's not that I don't think I could be a good, and dedicated moderator, but the baggage I bring to any election would serve only to distract and open old wounds for a lot of us. That's what I mean by me being realistic.

@amWhy I agree with that. (Both aspects.)

I have already encouraged two individuals who I believe would make great mods, and who have conducted themselves on this site in a stellar manner. I think you'd be pleased with either one, @quid.

@amWhy likely yes.

I'll try to finish some paper work now.

There is also a chess tournament on if you are interested @amWhy

@quid Thanks for chatting, @quid! Now get to work! :-)

@quid Indeed I am!

@amWhy yes it was nice to catch up. See you! For the chess it is called "chessable masters" it's on chess24.com but likely also elsewhere.

@quid Thanks!

musing: matrix with diagonal elements (P)^s_1, (P)^s_2, ... s.t. the sum of the s_i is 0.

where P is an infinite tower of exponentials. like e^e^e^e^e

musing: this must be useless!

it bothers me that the only useful matrix might very well be simply just using 1 exponential e^s_1, e^s_2, ... which corresponds to a very important object known as the maximal split torus

hi

@Arjun Hi there!

@amWhy, how was your day

@Arjun It's been good so far (11:10 am for me!)

@Arjun It's been good so far! :-)

@amWhy ,i keep forgetting the time difference😁, today is saturday(my favourite) but it was a rather rough one this time

@Arjun I hope it finishes off better than it started!

@amWhy ,trying to do that

hey @amwhy!

@sai-kartik Hello!

@amWhy what specials today?

@sai-kartik Or "what's special today?" Hmm, not so sure about that. But you might want to check a local restaurant for their specials today! :D

@amWhy 😅 I meant about your day.. but ok.

@amWhy btw, my local restaurants are all closed

@sai-kartik Today has been nice, in that I've had the chance to sleep in and rest a bit. I still plan to do some work (it is noon, my time), but it's felt rather nice to have taken a little bit of a break.

@sai-kartik Yes, as are many across the world.

@amWhy course! who doesn't like a break?(im taking one right now :P)

@sai-kartik Sanity depends on carefully chosen breaks/rest periods!

@amWhy true that

In fact, a recommendation to both you and to @Arjun: Hermann Hesse's Beneath the Wheel. It serves as a good reminder to not take oneself too seriously, too much of the time, particularly for scholars. Not that one should not aspire and work hard. But it surely addresses "the grind."

@amWhy I should read it soon then...

@amWhy , i am sure it won't disappoint me

@Arjun It is rather tragic. So be prepared. I just know you've enjoyed some Hermann Hesse novels. This was one of his first, if not, the first published work of his, and I think he expresses mixed feelings about overemphasizing academics over personal development. I suspect, as in most of his novels, the main character reflects bits about himself (the author).

@amWhy , ready to take on some higher level books now. And most of the authors tend to hide a little bit of their charecter in the book they write

@Arjun Indeed!

@I hope you will read 'Room on the roof' as soon as you get time and trust me you will learn a lot about india, it's culture through the eyes of an englishman,very beautifully written

@Arjun so true..

@quid I flagged, and was flagged, for comments on math.stackexchange.com/questions/3736735/…

Please review. I am tired of the flagger creating drama.

@amWhy I'll check

My main concern is with this user, who seemed to intentionally incite the asker, who had previously thanked me for a tip below her question, but then went on to call me "pathetic".

@quid Thanks, @quid.

@amWhy I cleaned up the comments. Yes I noted.

@quid I saw, hence my previous comment "Thanks, @quid" :-)

@amWhy yes indeed.

@amWhy,@quid, good night (or maybe afternoon for you)

@Arjun good night.

@Arjun good night!

@quid Did you get accomplished what you hoped to today, at least elsewhere (other than math.se or mathed.se)?

@quid I guess the answer to my last question is no. Take care.

@amWhy things dragged on a bit. I am about to finish what I wanted to do.

@quid No problem! But could you take a look at the comments below this meta post. I flagged them because they seem rather nonsensical.

@amWhy they seem off-topic.

@quid Indeed.

I'll be back in a bit.

Sure, @quid. Is the meta commenter the same user who appeared here? This can wait until you get back!

@amWhy IIRC yes.

(I am not yet back)

@quid Anyway, this user, I believe, used a different username previously, but viewing their comment yesterday to you below your answer here, I do not believe them to be acting in good faith, given their comments on main and meta today. Certainly, there is a language barrier, as they seem not to have a very good command of English, and that likely compounds the problem.

@quid But that user also seems clueless that their own inability to communicate their questions/comments is likely the source of their being misunderstand. Yet they want to blame other users for being misunderstood, being "abused" etc.

Nor do I think they fully understand the English others are writing to address them, which leaves the door wide open to them to interpret only what they see as possibly offensive, without understanding what was even being said.

Oh, well, I'll leave you alone, @quid.