What the Hell am I doing?

I covered this on Twitter and now I'm going to turn those tweets into a blog post, because I'm feeling just that motivated, today. This is what I said, with a few explanatory notes stuck in, because somebody is always has trouble keeping up.



"Decisions, decisions ...

'Just setting up my Twitter. #myfirstTweet'

'Hello Twitter! #myfirstTweet'



Oh, how will I ever choose? Maybe I'll just say what this is going to be about. I'm creating some groups on Flickr on which people are going to be able to post pictures of some of the urban infrastructure - public transportation, bridges, sewers, utilities, etc. Things that make life in the city possible. Photos from those groups will be tweeted here. (Well, here, actually, but as I said, I'm a lazy sack of ... something ... today and am quoting what I posted somewhere else)

Yes, the members of the groups will know about this. I'm writing a mention of this into the rules for the groups, which they have to agree to when they join. I'm not claiming rights over their work or taking credit for it. Tags that I'll set the system at IFTTT to add to the tweets will tell you which group the photo was posted to, distinguishing it from my work. A guide to the tags will be present on the homepage to which I'll be linking. I haven't created it, yet, at this point, but I will. (and I still haven't - sad, isn't it)

It's a win-win-win. The tweeted photos will link back to the photo pages on Flickr, as Flickr insists (and rightly so). You, as the person following this account, will get eye candy. Gritty, urban eye candy. The people whose photos are tweeted get more views. It's a win-win-win. The tweeted photos will link back to the photo pages on Flickr, as Flickr insists (and rightly so). You, as the person following this account, will get eye candy. Gritty, urban eye candy. The people whose photos are tweeted get more views.

That's been a real problem at Flickr, a site with a lot to see, but relative to its size, not a lot of inbound traffic. Photos that have been up since the last century often have less than a hundred views, and some of these are great photos. Something needs to be done about that, so some of us are doing it. We'll send out thumbnails of new photos, in effect telling people "there's this great content that you just saw, come check it out." Some of it might not be so great, but it's a group, not a professional gallery, so that's to be expected.

I'll also have some groups, probably over at Livejournal (yes, sure, boo, hiss), probably literary groups. Apolitical literary groups, given the TOS, which as an admin, I intend to enforce. The rumors about me being a front man for Putin may now begin.

Now that I've mentioned what I'm going to be sharing of what other people have submitted, which is part of the purpose served by this twitter, the question arises: am I just going to just be sitting here passively, pushing the content of others? The answer is no. Why would it be yes? Twitter accounts without active engagement have trouble gaining followings. Also, I'm going to be putting in real work to get these groups going, so isn't it only fair that I get something out of this? And I will.

A more interesting (and visually striking) twitter is one that people are likelier to follow, so if I create a blog of my own and tweet update notices for it (with links to the new posts), that should help me gain readership. Before we go any further, I'd like to reassure any Twitter employee reading this that Twitter will be getting something out of this, too. The "active engagement" will take the form of my participation in discussions on this platform. (OK, their platform, but I'm quoting myself - have I beaten that point to death sufficiently, yet) Discussions that (like discussions would in general) get more people to see the ads on this site, adding to Twitter's profits.

"Serving the capitalist agenda? I knew it! You're totally in cahoots with Trump and Putin."

Yeah, whatever. What sort of blogging am I going to do? (about time I got to the point) In real life (not to be confused with the Internet), I am a PhD candidate in Mathematics. My primary area of interest is in Probability, but I also am interested in other branches, especially Applied Mathematics, Analysis and Statistics.

Now that my required coursework is done, my schedule is less crazy, and am I'm asking myself questions like "how on Earth am I ever going to get a job", I'm broadening my reading and my skill base. I intend to learn more about Operations Research Analysis, Optimization, Actuarial Science and other very mathematically inclined areas of management science, to go along with my studies in engineering, so I can be a more fully rounded, better informed candidate for employment. Something that is sort of interesting about these subjects is that they're not just relevant to corporate life, but to public administration, as well.

What you will see on the blog is some of the work I do as I study these subjects. Some of it, I suppose, will just be unassigned homework, so by reading these posts, you'll be learning these subjects along with me. But I do bring something to the table - a lot more mathematical maturity than is seen out of the average OR or actuarial student. As I said, I am a PhD candidate in Mathematics, with some background in Engineering (also, Physics). I might be able to add something to the methodology a little sooner in my studies than usual, because of this.

(Hence the url for this blog, which is not going to be wasted)

There will be some (maybe a lot) of discussion of social science and politics, but not on a national level. On a municipal level. A theme that is going to tie all of this together is that of running a city - of urban planning in its various forms, one might say.

While I'm sure that last tweet will trigger at least a few libertarians, I don't care. I'll just block them if they want to make an issue out of that, or out of the concept of planning for the greater public good. I think that the rest of us have spent more than enough time trying to reason with extremists and other cranks and psychopaths, and that really, no time at all doing that would have been plenty. The world has turned into a bit of a mess because sane people let themselves waste so much time trying to please those nearly incapable of being pleased, that their own legitimate needs and concerns were neglected. It's time for that to end. It's time for the real grown ups to take back control of the real discussions, and not worry so much about the outbursts of the petulant children of all ages who they will ignore. It's time for the rhetoric to be over and for the real work to begin.

If a Nazi or an Antifa member, a Postmodernist, a Flat Earther, a Fundamentalist or even a Libertarian or a Neo-Conservative shows up and wants to waste my time with a debate about some absurd issue, I'll just block him. Or her. Because I don't owe that person any of my time.

Engagement on this platform (their platform, Twitter) ... I'll try to avoid the shouting matches as well as I can, but if I want to find followers, I have to go to where the people are, and Twitter really pushes the ultra-divisive politics of personal destruction through its choice of moments to promote.
Maybe I'll go looking for some of the less serious ones. I can get followers by going into the shouting matches, but will they be followers that I want? Followers who will stick around as this account gets more serious, more creative and more positive?

Do I want to be here five years from now, well into the second Trump administration, hearing from somebody who wants me to explain to him why I haven't written about Jeff Sessions, lately? Maybe not."



So, as political (or semi-political) blogs go, this one will be long on Math and short on rhetoric and drama, more local than national and more theoretical than practical. I do live in Chicago and while I suppose I could fill up a good sized blog with nasty stories I've heard about Rahm Emanuel, some of which might even have a basis in reality (who knows), there are plenty of other people already writing that blog. Does it need to be written, again? Though, if our probably unbalanced president (Donald Trump) ever makes good on his threat to put Chicago under military occupation or acts on that crazy suggestion to arrest the mayors of the sanctuary cities, I'll write about that, because that will be history and I will be uncomfortably close at hand for it, City Hall being but a few miles from my apartment.

But for the most part, the overwhelming part, I'm more interested in the nuts and bolts. Keeping the traffic (and sewers) flowing, that sort of thing. A lot of people will find this to be dry reading, but I am a mathematician, so what did you expect?