The Library Bar and Sherlock Holmes

 

The Library Cafe and Bar, Madison, WI, USA

Back in grad school, I used to frequent a bar called “The Library.” They had books, food, and drinks, and the music was always great. There was nothing I enjoyed more than showing up there after a long day at work, finding a spot under the bright lights, and reading Sherlock Holmes. The walls were lined with actual bookshelves, but I usually stuck to the hard wooden chairs with my own worn paperbacks.

If you would have told me back then that I would eventually be seriously attempting to learn math that wasn't essential for my work, I would’ve laughed in your face. My way of thinking felt completely incompatible with the rigid world of mathematics. I saw myself as a person of prose and puzzles, not proofs and polynomials.

My perspective has changed over the last five years. I have slowly begun to realize that the thrill of a Holmesian deduction is not so different from the thrill of a mathematical discovery.