ocean-life Chapter 143 The Academic Circle's Most Miserable Competition
Chapter 143 The Academic Circle's Most Miserable Competition
This was a rare and pleasant time.
For Su Hao, the gathering of the world's top mathematicians and the high-density collision of intellectual sparks was a rather novel experience.
With the dean's opening remarks concluded, the first seminar commenced.
The seminar's theme was rather subtle—"Mathematical Problems and Young Scholars."
To Su Hao, this was nothing more than a peculiar "academic misery contest" combined with a "failure experience exchange workshop."
The academic giants on the stage did not flaunt their impressive resumes; instead, they frankly, even somewhat cruelly, dissected their respective failed lives.
An elderly professor with a full head of white hair held a microphone, his voice carrying the weight of years:
"I spent four whole years obsessively working on Fermat's Last Theorem, feeling like a caged beast, wasting my time in vain."
When Andrew Wiles proved it as if it had fallen from the sky, guess how I felt?
Half of my heart is filled with the relief of finally being free, but the other half...
It was an unprecedented emptiness, as if it had been hollowed out.
After that, it took me three whole years to barely get back to researching other topics.
During those three years, I felt like a walking corpse, unable to muster the energy to do anything and finding everything meaningless.
Therefore, young scholars, you are free to challenge those magnificent unsolved mysteries, but please, please don't let them devour your original lives.
clap clap clap!
Thunderous applause erupted from the audience, a blend of respect and sighs for the pioneers.
As the applause subsided, a middle-aged professor with sunken eyes and a tired expression slowly walked onto the stage and picked up the microphone.
Adrian Keller.
Upon hearing the host's announcement, Su Hao's gaze sharpened slightly; he was extremely familiar with the name.
After all, this guy's papers had been a frequent visitor to his desk for some time.
"When I was young, I also recklessly charged into the Riemann Hypothesis."
At that time, I was completely bewitched, firmly believing that it was God's destiny for me!
But what is the reality?
Several years have passed in the blink of an eye, and I have suffered a complete defeat, gaining nothing!
Adrian's voice was somewhat hoarse, as if each word carried a heavy weight.
"In that house, I became completely invisible, like air."
My wife is raising the child alone, and she is exhausted and on the verge of collapse.
And me? I spent nights in the cold laboratory like a ghost, visibly wasting away day by day.
Because I'm always deceiving myself into thinking:
"If I just hang in there a little longer, even just one more night, I'll see results!"
He paused for a moment, his rough fingers unscrewing the chipped thermos in front of him, tilting his head back and taking a big gulp of water, as if swallowing the bitterness of the past.
"Most scholars who dedicate half their lives to mathematical conjectures will inevitably face a very special period in the end—"
That's when you have to grit your teeth and decide when to give up completely.
In the end, I chose to bow to reality and chose family.
And even standing here today, I am still absolutely certain that this choice was the right one!
But this... also causes me unbearable pain!
Adrian's voice suddenly tightened, with a slight, uncontrollable tremor.
"Because to this day, every day, every moment, the image of the Riemann zeta function involuntarily appears in my mind!"
Whether it's teaching the most basic calculus to undergraduates in a lecture hall;
Or when sitting at the dining table having dinner with family.
That ghost has never let me go.
He raised his head, his gaze deep and desolate, and slowly looked around at the group of energetic attendees below the stage.
"This is the most tragic form of failure I can imagine in my entire life."
I'm showing you my scars because I sincerely hope that you all will become even better researchers than me in the future, and not repeat my mistakes.
That concludes my presentation.
one second.
two seconds.
A brief silence fell over the entire venue.
Everyone was overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the tragedy.
Then, a dull, suppressed yet unusually long round of applause, like a rumble of thunder, spread throughout the hall.
"Do you regret challenging the Riemann Hypothesis?!"
Suddenly, someone in the audience raised their voice and shouted at the top of their lungs with an excited expression.
The middle-aged professor, who was about to walk back to his seat dejectedly, suddenly stopped and slowly turned around.
"What has caused me pain has never been the Riemann Hypothesis itself."
Adrian gave a bitter laugh, a hint of indescribable sorrow in his eyes.
"But when faced with that insurmountable mountain, I was forced to painfully recognize my pitiful limits."
Adrian's voice suddenly rose in pitch:
"Sometimes, even knowing that rushing forward will result in being smashed to pieces and dying without a complete corpse, you still want to throw yourself into that beautiful and age-old problem regardless of everything."
Throughout history, countless great mathematicians have gone through this moth-to-a-flame process, leaving us with invaluable clues, like a 'last message', through their own remains!
But what truly kept me up at night and caused me immense torment...
It was my cowardice that prevented me from even having the courage to bravely face death!
The entire audience was moved.
Having said all that, the purpose of this seminar is quite clear.
This is the blood and tears of senior scholars in the academic community, warning young scholars:
Never blindly pursue those century-old problems that could strangle geniuses, simply for worldly fame or gain.
But everyone knows that, despite this, there will inevitably be batches of madmen who will embark on that road of no return without hesitation.
Because this is precisely the most fascinating essence of mathematics!
From its very inception, it has relied on the almost pathological and stubborn curiosity inherent in human nature as its driving force to overcome all obstacles and develop to this day!
Therefore, these highly respected professors on the stage were not trying to discourage young scholars from pursuing their careers, but rather posing a soul-searching question to all the ambitious young scholars present:
"For it, what terrible price are you prepared to pay?"
Su Hao, sitting in the audience, leaned back in his chair, his deep eyes reflecting the light and shadow on the screen, lost in deep thought.