Interesting YouTube interview with Fields Medalist Richard Borcherds

[Quantum Bubbles]

As a welcome change from the spam that plagues sci.math, I thought regulars and the rare student that visits might enjoy this interview with fields medalist Richard Borcherds, an expert in algebra (approx 2 hours long).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xu15ZbxxnUQ

The interview is informal and partly concerns Borcherds' thinking and learning style, and philosophical opinions. The channel is not one I would usually go for given the nature of some previous guests, but I thought this particular interview was interesting.

Students that would regard themselves as having a disorganized thinking/learning style may find some of his remarks particularly encouraging or reassuring, especially given the prevalence of counter-productive perfectionism and related anxiety disorders among subsets of university students.

Richard Borcherds also seems to have his own YouTube channel with recorded maths presentations on a variety of university level material. I haven't checked them out in detail, but for anyone interested, the link is here:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIyDqfi_cbkp-RU20aBF-MQ

Of particular relevance to some regulars here would be his video on the axiom of infinity in set theory:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fzh_1EWSqc


Regards

QB

[sobriquet]

I've seen some of his videos but in general I'm not a fan of people scribbling things as they
speak.
Why don't they take the effort to work things out in a clear and concise format ahead of
time and employ a suitable method to display sections step by step?

Math videos by Dr. Trefor Bazett seem to be a good example of this approach:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fcT5X5tUvM

An alternative used by some is to have sheets/slides with illustrations and they scribble
on top of these as they speak. Most annoying is when they use a mouse to write or
draw, which usually results in incomprehensible ugly scribbling, even though in general
the lectures can still be relatively good quality (it's just that the scribbling somewhat
detracts from the educational value).

[Mostowski Collapse]

https://youtu.be/xu15ZbxxnUQ?t=289

Q (Interviewer): What do you procrastinate with?
A (Richard Borcherds): Making youtube videos on mathematics?

Looks like the interviewer didn't get the pun. It gets even better afterwards:

Q (Interviewer): Do you have pets or kids?
A (Richard Borcherds): I used to have chickens, but they died a few years ago.

LoL

[Mostowski Collapse]

Dan-O-Matik could learn something, he just explains
function spaces A -> B here in passing in the first seconds:

Zermelo Fraenkel Powerset
Richard E. BORCHERDS - 30.11.2021
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCMvljsu84s

Task for Dan-O-Matik can you prove:

{ f | "Dan-O-Matik f : A -> B" } ⊆ P(A x B)

Thats litterally the requirement of set-like function spaces,
I want to explain Dan-O-Matik already for weeks,

but Dan-O-Matik refuses, denies, cranks it up, etc..

[Mostowski Collapse]

This video also adresses some "conceptualism" nonsense of
WM, who thinks the ZFC power axiom makes P(omega) full.

LoL

[sobriquet]

As a further example to illustrate this point, compare these two videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6sGWTCMz2k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSw2xFhMRN0

They basically cover the same content, but I very much more enjoy clear text and
animations to illustrate concepts than scribbles where I have to spent more time
and effort deciphering what is even being written and once it's written it's static, so
there are no animations that can be a powerful method to convey concepts.

Now of course, the core of the content is the conceptual structure, and whether
it is communicated in a coherent fashion that elucidates the topic.
But the presentation or form can also make a big difference.
Watching a video is one thing, but subsequently interacting with the
concepts yourself with interactive demos can really help as well.

https://www.desmos.com/calculator/0cbrco3o5z