Does and teaches applied mathematics. (he/him, er/ihn)
- Tweets 5,169
- Following 355
- Followers 1,204
- Likes 5,455
I hereby rename "Applied Mathematics" to "Super Mathematics". Having "Applied" in front does not transport how super useful it is. The most useful among like basically everything.
I hereby rename "Computer Science" to "Super Science." Putting "Computer" in front makes it sound like a fake science, but it's very real, super real, the realest of the real
1
1
8
1,904
Material decomposition with multispectral computed tomography still feels underresearched mathematically!Here is what Jürgen Jeschke and I came up with to better understand what is going on.
arxiv.org/abs/2609.25926
3
317
Context: I've heard people doing this - producing a "proof" with AI, being too lazy to understand it and then send it to other people to check. Incredibly lame. You just wrote some prompt and now you want other to do the work and explain the slop to you? Nope, not happening.
1
170
Dirk L. retweeted
Here’s my first attempt to grapple with AI companies’ conquest of mathematics and our new mathematical condition.
argmin.net/p/applied-pure-ma…
4
46
226
42,657
Dirk L. retweeted
TMLR has faced a deluge of submissions, necessitating stricter desk rejection policies due to limited reviewer capacity
Co-EiC Nihar Shah reached out to authors of 10 papers slated for desk reject. Could they answer questions about their *own* submission?
medium.com/@TmlrOrg/asking-a…
27
215
1,057
699,526
I don't think this is crazy at all. Being able to answer questions about a submission is the mere baseline that authors should pass. Seems to me like a good way to filter out submission the authors did not even write
Okay, this is crazy. TMLR editors took the unusual step of inviting authors of a subset of papers before desk rejection to have a Zoom call and answer questions about their papers. Result: only 7 of 10 invited accepted, and 7 out of 7 failed to answer any questions. People are publishing stuff they cannot explain or understand!!
medium.com/@TmlrOrg/asking-a…
1
1
4
732
Finally some good suggestions on how to handle the most difficult issue with AI being able to produce math: How do we train future research mathematicians?
I've written an essay on how I think the mathematics profession should adapt to highly capable AI systems. It's hosted here on "Proofs and Prompts": proofsandprompts.com/2026/09…
though you should also feel free to complain/comment on my website here: daniellitt.com/blog/2026/9/1…
3
3
733
"If you never attain a negative value you are not converging to zero"
Am I doing this right?
Most people treat a zero-failure record as a flex. In computer science, there is a sharper perspective famously known as "Umeshisms."
During his PhD at UC Berkeley under quantum computing pioneer Umesh Vazirani, computer scientist Scott Aaronson noted an aphorism his advisor loved to repeat:
"If you have never missed a flight, you are spending too much time in airports."
The math logic is simple: a 0% miss rate often means you are overpaying in friction, prep time, and missed opportunity. Occasional failure is often the price of a better expected-value tradeoff.
Aaronson named these "Umeshisms" in a 2005 blog post and penned a few sequels in the same spirit:
- "If you have never been rejected, you are not asking enough."
- "If you never cut yourself while shaving, you are not shaving close enough."
The lesson is recognizing when extreme risk aversion costs you more than the risk itself.
1
3
526
This is a good point. I hope mathematicians will be quicker to adopt this than the general public that (in large parts) still thinks that multiplying 2746392 and 28392748 is something that mathematicians actually do.
Basically, math papers should now no longer be about
‣ I've solved this problem / proved this conjecture
but rather about
‣ I found and understood something instructive / enlightening / surprising / beautiful / useful, and I want to share it with you and explain it.
1
5
355
Dirk L. retweeted
There's still time to nominate a colleague for a SIAM prize!
Help recognize outstanding work in the field by submitting a nomination by October 15, 2026.
See the SIAM Prize Deadline Calendar for details: siam.org/programs-initiative…
4
7
791