Algebraic either/or in München

Underclock in AMS for vacuous reasoning

Yesterday was Teachers' Day in China. I sent an email to my mentor during bs. They replied with a photo of my postcard from München, which is also the target of the incoming flight. The postcard contains nothing, but a (poorly) handwritten quote from Kierkegaard,

Like the unfortunate madman who says he’ll climb down into Dovrefjell to blow up the whole world with a syllogism, what was needed was someone who could, to everyone’s knowledge, climb really deep down into the whole world of mediation, mediocrity, and spiritlessness to plant there, for all to see, the explosive either/or.

One of my (mis)interpretations is that, mediocre (if not lobotomized) person like me should be more practicle/pragmatic instead of following those impracticle ideas, leaning to a (much?) harder direction that exceeds my capability, in the end only incurring self-destruction.

Four days ago I experienced a 顿悟/ἐπιφάνεια, such that hardware (along with many other subjects, also) delimits programming language design, e.g. GPUs for data-parallel langauges (accelerate, futhark, etc.). What if we try to design languages without ever thinking about how to compile them to actual hardwares. Or more loosely, What if we design some abstract hardwares in our minds and then design a language that can compile to them? I have such an instinct/intuition that, I should learn algebraic geometry & algebraic topology, to search for the inspirations for that abstract hardware, the elegantest topological structure(s) for data-parallel computations rather than monotonous hypercuboids, naperian functors, indexed containers, etc. And then a calculus language for that abstract hardware. With such ambition/perseverance, I attended the first lecture of algebraic topology, then I had an existential crisis because, I couldn't understand a single word from the lecturer.

In this case, I can either: un-enroll the math courses and enroll a cs course. In this way, I can keep my sanity, have a better chance to pass the exams, and I can self-study math in my spare time. Or: un-enroll (second elective) cs courses and focus on math courses, which will lead to: either the tranquility of fulfillment, or total self-destruction.

With this in mind, I boarded the plane, officially started my journey to Zigtoberfest 2026, in the hope that this conference would somehow enlighten me with the ⫽correct⫽ path.

Les Rêveries du promeneur solitaire

Most of the presentations were fabulous, but the problem is that I couldn't raise any interest in the content. Zig is one of my favorite programming languages, and I treat it as the ethical language, while haskell & racket being the æsthetic languages. I can't, subjectively, enjoy an ethical language. And I can't subjectively enjoy an algorithm course. Math courses, albeit being decompositional, intoxicate me.

Also if I can't survive these 2 math courses, how can I be eligible for becoming a Ph.D student. And how can I be eligible for achieving my dream.

Maze the knowledge graph dsl

M is for München

A is for Amsterdam

Z is for Zig(toberfest)

E is for Either/or

A challenge, besides torments my sanity, also implants some potential project ideas, an idea that would either actually help me tackle the challenge, or just being a random idea, in both cases can be later extended to something less trivial.

I'm designing a dsl for knowledge graphs that will help me efficiently build up my knowledge base for algebraic geometry/topology courses. This should be embedded into this website, especially the rhizome zone.

This website will be rewritten in racket.