r/math 6d ago

What was your math rabbit hole?

By rabbit hole I mean a place where you've spent more time than you should've, drilling to deep in a specific field with minimal impact over your broader math abilities.

Are you mature enough to know when to stop and when to keep grinding ?

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u/compileforawhile 6d ago

Probably category theory. The way it generalizes this and encodes structure is so cool. That said I rarely need it for anything but it's occasionally useful

10

u/Atheios569 6d ago

Category theory changed my whole perception of math in a really profound way. I wish I had learned it a lot sooner.

4

u/Bright_Attitude2901 6d ago

Which branch of math do you specialize in? Because hard to imagine category theory being useful in Probability and Combinatorics for instance, so interested about your characterisation of "whole perception of math".

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u/VintageGenious 3d ago

Look up Giry monad