- #1
moon42
- 10
- 0
Hello,
Ever since I can remember, I've been trying to create models of reality that would help me understand the world around me. I have this innate obsession of understanding the world, and I always end up burning the midnight oil, studying topics that I'm not familiar with (mostly physics and mathematics). I also consider myself to have an ability to quite easily create new understanding, out of the one that I have (by interrelating all the understanding I have, regardless of it being from distinct fields of study).
As it stands right now, I'm a 20 year old, working as a software development engineer at one of the big 'Silicon Valley' companies. I got to this point out of my desire to 'understand' things that I'm not familiar with. However, now that I've reached my 'goal', I still feel intellectually unchallenged. I've felt this way all the way through school, middle school, high school, university, and now work.
What I want in essence, is to gain an advanced understanding of the current models that physics and mathematics provide, so that I can play with the notions in my head. I'm not necessarily saying that I'm mentally capable of reaching a very advanced level of understanding in a few months or years or my whole life. All I'm saying, is that so far, throughout my life, I haven't encountered something that I couldn't understand, provided I understood how the notions were symbolically represented. Along side that, as mentioned above, I have this innate obsession of understanding things, which pairs incredibly well with the ability to do so.
The problem however, is that even though I have access to the internet, I cannot get enough information as fast as I would want to, since every notion I try to learn leads to loads of questions. The internet, as it stands, does not allow me to ask a specific question, and get a specific response immediately, which I can follow up with several more questions (at least, not in a time which I'd consider reasonable). Learning through the internet (which is far better than books, don't get me wrong) involves cross-referencing things over, and over, and over again...
As you might have guessed from the title, I'm basically looking for a highly qualified personal physics/mathematics mentor. Someone who would be able to answer endless questions. I could of course pay whatever amount is required. I'm not sure what salaries top tier physicists tend to earn, but I'm sure I would be able to offer enough, assuming my career evolves as currently predicted.
Since (I'm assuming) there are quite a lot of trained physics/mathematics professionals here, I'm curious to hear your perspective on this. How should I approach a 'mentor'? Where can I find one that would be willing to do this? How do you think a university physics professor (one I wouldn't personally know) would react, if I were to ask him to tutor me (I would pay him of course)?
The problem with physics/mathematics professors, even university level ones, is that a lot of them only know the rules of the physics model, but not the origin of the rules themselves. So I feel that if I were to do that, I still would not be able to advance as fast as I would like.
Again. Right now, in essence, I am trying to find my limits, which I've otherwise haven't been able to. If it turns out that I'm not able to master this craft in a short time, then that's great! I get to know more about myself! If I do manage to get far with it, then that's great too!
Please don't take what I said as me trying to boast. It would be a meaningless attempt to do so, since I'm operating under anonymity.
Thanks for reading all of this! I look forward to seeing your responses.
Ever since I can remember, I've been trying to create models of reality that would help me understand the world around me. I have this innate obsession of understanding the world, and I always end up burning the midnight oil, studying topics that I'm not familiar with (mostly physics and mathematics). I also consider myself to have an ability to quite easily create new understanding, out of the one that I have (by interrelating all the understanding I have, regardless of it being from distinct fields of study).
As it stands right now, I'm a 20 year old, working as a software development engineer at one of the big 'Silicon Valley' companies. I got to this point out of my desire to 'understand' things that I'm not familiar with. However, now that I've reached my 'goal', I still feel intellectually unchallenged. I've felt this way all the way through school, middle school, high school, university, and now work.
What I want in essence, is to gain an advanced understanding of the current models that physics and mathematics provide, so that I can play with the notions in my head. I'm not necessarily saying that I'm mentally capable of reaching a very advanced level of understanding in a few months or years or my whole life. All I'm saying, is that so far, throughout my life, I haven't encountered something that I couldn't understand, provided I understood how the notions were symbolically represented. Along side that, as mentioned above, I have this innate obsession of understanding things, which pairs incredibly well with the ability to do so.
The problem however, is that even though I have access to the internet, I cannot get enough information as fast as I would want to, since every notion I try to learn leads to loads of questions. The internet, as it stands, does not allow me to ask a specific question, and get a specific response immediately, which I can follow up with several more questions (at least, not in a time which I'd consider reasonable). Learning through the internet (which is far better than books, don't get me wrong) involves cross-referencing things over, and over, and over again...
As you might have guessed from the title, I'm basically looking for a highly qualified personal physics/mathematics mentor. Someone who would be able to answer endless questions. I could of course pay whatever amount is required. I'm not sure what salaries top tier physicists tend to earn, but I'm sure I would be able to offer enough, assuming my career evolves as currently predicted.
Since (I'm assuming) there are quite a lot of trained physics/mathematics professionals here, I'm curious to hear your perspective on this. How should I approach a 'mentor'? Where can I find one that would be willing to do this? How do you think a university physics professor (one I wouldn't personally know) would react, if I were to ask him to tutor me (I would pay him of course)?
The problem with physics/mathematics professors, even university level ones, is that a lot of them only know the rules of the physics model, but not the origin of the rules themselves. So I feel that if I were to do that, I still would not be able to advance as fast as I would like.
Again. Right now, in essence, I am trying to find my limits, which I've otherwise haven't been able to. If it turns out that I'm not able to master this craft in a short time, then that's great! I get to know more about myself! If I do manage to get far with it, then that's great too!
Please don't take what I said as me trying to boast. It would be a meaningless attempt to do so, since I'm operating under anonymity.
Thanks for reading all of this! I look forward to seeing your responses.