What possible career paths can follow from a medium-to-strong background in problem solving mathematics?
I am a mathematics major with interests in real and complex analyses and Number Theory. Often, students feel a certain anxiety of getting published or coming up with an insightful mathematical idea before a certain age. And along with it inevitably comes self doubt. How might an “epsilon” avoid such stress? Guess what: I feel the same way sometimes! It’s not so surprising in a subject where one’s daily business makes reference not just to the mathematicians of our era, but also such “peers” as Euler, Gauss, and so on. The best answer I can suggest is to keep focused. Our subject is like one of those giant medieval European cathedrals: it is the assembled work of many people over centuries, and even if the impact of any one of those people is not visible from a distance, it forms its own integral part of the structure. What are your thoughts about taking linear algebra as a high school senior? I would be taking the course at a community college. I took a high school multivariable calcul