An entrepreneur (presidential Google+ Hangout and intro)

The reasons and purpose behind my new entrepreneur path will be described later.

I joined a friend who was building an IT company. By the time I arrived, he had ideas for over 4 startups, and had began all of them, having concluded on none. This is exactly what the scientific method living within me would *NOT* suggest.  However, he is bright, he was my friend, I had to somewhere start my new purpose and I needed to save my ass.

After a year of discarding all his previous ideas, we finally came up with a cute idea. We made the plan, took a loan and said no to everyone. We were on route.

I can extend quite a lot on what has happened since then. I will only remark a few events. 

First, we took the very wrong approach: waterfall cascade methodology for a massive market. What a disaster! No matter how hard you work on defining requirements, truth is that, as a friend of mine says, "Pudding is in the tasting".  In case I haven't been clear, I want you to know I'll write more about startup creation strategy later. 

We found ourselves in bankrupt. We had to start several business lines in order to survive while we developed our startup.  

In general, we were recognized as top geeks who returned to Colombia god knows why. In fact, the president of Colombia in that moment (President Santos) invited us to join him in the first Google+ Hangout done with a latin american president (second in the world, after Obama). The tittle of the conference was "Eight colombians that will conquer the world". By that time, after much effort, we had just started franchising our tech startup in Japan. Other than that, I still wonder why they called us. Maybe in the Nariño House (official presidential house in Colombia) they thought we were weird enough. Among the Hangout participants was Mariana Pajón, olympic champion.

Wait!! What?? Are you serious??? The world???

We talked to him and we listened to all he wanted to say. You know..innovation, science and technology, "yes we can", etc...

What's left today from this intervention?

1. The impression Google offices are not as exciting in Colombia.

2. An Android puppet Google gave us, presumably, in return for sitting on those chairs for more than a couple of  hours.

Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful for this. It remembered be of my political side (taken from my dad) and told me a nice fantasy, in which I would conquer the world.

Our tech startup is not doing so well now and we've been talking to some investors, always very close to succeed. I blame colombian culture, but maybe is me. I know it's me when I blame someone else.

Since then we have been participating in new IT startup projects and developing mobile and web apps for several companies (and the colombian government itself). We have also been consulting on IT and I have been doing half-time teaching in a private university. This is a brief description of where I am now, nothing more, nothing less. Will I manage to survive? stay tuned!

Ok, enough talking about me. Let's talk about us.

A Cosmologist (shaking reality and common sense)

My initial intent was to understand what lies beyond the observable. For some reason I always thought Cosmology would be the closest to this purpose. I was, let's say, kind of right.

As I graduated as the only Mathematician and Physicist in my promotion, I took a scholarship offered to me in the UK, for doing my MSc in Cosmology. It was a dream coming true.

After 8 years of switching, creating, editing and erasing my career paths, I finally found my way to Cosmology. I arrived to UK, with all the uncertainty of living in an unknown land, with probably different cultural beliefs, conceptions and so on. Being the first colombian studying a Cosmology MSc. and one of the few 7 Physicists and Mathematicians in the country (some of them older than me), I liked to think I had some responsibility on my shoulders. The feeling was supported by a known local Magazine (Revista Credencial) that interviewed me for a special edition highlighting some rather weird people, that studied a lot and was somehow achieving their dreams.

I thought I may not respond to the initially thought British High education standards. As a matter of fact, initially I could not get into Cambridge or Oxford because "my GPA was too low". This was due to the horrible grade conversion system, where it is assumed education is not as good as in Britain. This assumption is false.

I got into Sussex, at that time third in the British Physics rankings. I now had world expert cosmologist Andrew Liddle close to me almost all of the time. British people outside London is kind and always give a smile to overseas foreigners, the opposite to what the government does. I'm sorry to write this but...the MSc. subjects were:

1. Easy.
2. Superficial.
3. Not motivating.
4. In a few aspects, irrelevant.
5. Not different in other british university.

I found I was the only one thinking like this, among my peers, what a huge surprise!

On the other hand, I had the opportunity to work with Mr. Liddle and Mark Hindmarsh, both known Cosmologists, in a pretty interesting topic: GR Renormalization group corrections for accounting late universe inflation.

Despite the subjects and their characteristics and since I wanted to do my PhD in Oxford, I had to plant myself on a chair 24/7 in order to get everything perfect, more on this (spiritual-academic) experience later. I got the MaCrea award to the best MSc. student that year and got the higher grades and the best research (results of my Msc. research later).

As I returned to my country, results were in order. First of all I got a government grant (lots of money for a student) to do a PHD wherever I wanted in the world, in whatever field I wanted, for whatever reason. Second, after applying to Oxford , I was offered a place for the PhD. Third, Marie Curie called me one morning stating I had been given a quite generous research grant I applied to, something I really, really, truly, don't remember doing, I swear!

Before you start thinking I'm really greedy, let me put all this in context.

I was born in a third world country, where everyone wants to live abroad, but no one wants to make an effort for living abroad, or being millionaire, or whatever ambition dictates. In Colombia, narcotraffic in the 90's seeded a tendency of easy money, which is still painfully damaging to the country. I'll write more about this later on. The average salary in my home country is well below the european Phd. ones, but the cost of life in Bogotá (where I live) is one of the most amazingly expensive in the world. On the other hand, all my undergrad peers were now in Waterloo, Princeton, Cornell, Caltech, Berkley, Max Planck Institute, etc...

Now that I feel more humble, let me tell you I was truly feeling that:

1. My education in Colombia was Soooooo much better and that, even more, Oxford and Cambridge were ridicule dismissing my MSc. application.

2. I learned much more than necessary, if I really wanted to do research in Cosmology.

3. Cosmology is almost a science.

4. Students in developed countries don't study that much.

5. Life in the UK rocks.

6. I wanted to contribute in my country, for children in my country and future generations.

7. This might not be my path.

8. Maybe I'll say no to everyone.

Wait....whaat?? not my path??? Seriosly???? no to everyone??? Am I ok???

Reality likes to tell me this is just the beginning of an exciting path, but I'm most of all, concerned about how responsible my decision was and how much I might be missing right now, you know, the "should not enjoy your life" feeling.

I'll write about this decision and its spiritual roots. My next post will be about my experience as an entrepreneur .

Wait....whaat?? Seriosly???? Are you ok???

Oh dear, what an exciting life.

A Mathematician (about me and other mathematicians as well)

But reality as described as Physics is commonly described under the language of Mathematics. Math is a gift for any scientist looking for insights and deep understanding. 

The mathematician has a very special mental structure and a capability for pattern recognition and creativity within a set of seemingly complicated rules. A mathematician is like an acrobat doing gymnastics on thin rope, without even realizing where he/she is. Math is an art created and developed by intuition.

Not even an advanced Physicist has an easy time learning the Mathematical language and logic. Not surprisingly Mathematicians do always have an objection towards Physics and its logic, equations and approximations. I'll write more about this later.

For the mean time, I will concede I crashed against what could be called "perfect logic". Having not been (apparently, maybe) the brilliant mathematically gifted child, I never had special Math education during my younger years, in contrast with my peers, all champions of whatever international Math contest you may have heard of. I had to sweat for entire nights figuring out how to put together constructs, without falling into logical fallacies, but with enough creativity to make the proofs.

As I evolved in this direction I became more and more aware of Physics and my Physics grades blew up, as I regained motivation towards Lorentzian Manifolds in General Relativity and General Relativity alternative theories (with small corrections and additions to Einstein's field equations).

What most astonished me (and still does) is how amazingly hard is to explain other people why a mathematician is special and is able to have a very short learning curve in almost any other technical profession. Of course, this is something others wouldn't want to hear or would reject at first glance. I usually think this reaction is originated by their egos, but every time I blame other's egos, I find my ego big behind! 

For now, I just want to say Mathematicians are very special people, brilliant, creative and mostly under rated for the capabilities, abusively enclosed by a social judgement of not being open minded and/or incapable of feeling anything (love, joy, amusement, mysticism, etc..). Unfortunately, as a down side, I've seen the mathematicians ego and competitiveness inflated. This is not particularly useful for a society evolving towards integration, team work and a greater sense of belonging. The attitude might be a response to early social isolation, due to judgements and misinterpretations of others, as well as theirs.

I'll write more about mathematicians later. Next I will write about my experience in studying Cosmology in the UK.

A Physicist (working for a dream)

Completed the Physics BSc. in my home country. To be honest, I took a strange road of which I knew nothing about, except it was the only job I wanted to have. I didn't know about the road but I surely enjoyed the steps.

I was amazed by the nature of reality since I was a kid. One normally takes a tough attitude towards reality blaming it for being whatever we dislike about it. I skipped literature lectures (which I found really boring), to read about planets, stars, galaxies, quasars, black holes and sense about the spirit behind them. I couldn't understand well what I read and on the contrary as my small knowledge progressed I felt more and more encouraged to pursue revelation of nature.

Culture had paying me a toll for a while, as I started an EE BSc., however, the mistake didn't last too long (I spent my time in the EE labs doing maths and physics) and I passed papers to change start towards a Physics major. I was willing to do anything in order to understand Physics and Cosmology, but I didn't know how much would that be.

Taking advanced Linear Algebra was like climbing a 70°, 5 km uphill without water and almost without knowing how to walk! The logical and rigorous approach used by mathematicians was way too difficult for me to accept and access. I cried over my Linear Algebra book a few times, in frustration for my lack of understanding. It is after a long time that you realize how important is intent in your life.

I managed to evolve my analytical and intellectual skills to a point at which I loved mathematics and fell in love with the effort required to understand what I really thought I could never understand!

In the learning process all that matters is the present moment. You might be fully aware of what you're reading and what you are thinking with in the present, everything depends on you and you're not expecting anything (except, maybe, to understand). This is why reading and learning is so enjoyable, one can clear the mind and let space only for inspiration and exploration, given that what you're reading is really what you want to know.

Some problems were seeded by my unawareness. Once I started being tired of only studying and not living the wide world outside academia, I suffered a negative effect in my attention and was soon doing things I didn't want to do, like copying a Kepler's work to present an irrelevant homework for what I thought was not an irrelevant subject. This was my first conflict with academia and I'll write more about it later.

Taking Quantum Mechanics was the confirmation that I was in the right route and that my own view point of Physics was about to start. Did my thesis in Torsion alternative theories in General Relativity, trying to find a way through unifying General Realtivity and Quantum Mechanics.

After this I felt in ecstasy and I was ready to start my MSc. in Cosmology.  Next entry I'll talk about my experience doing my BSc. in Mathematics.