Math for Econ, Not for Econ


BY CÜNEYT YILMAZ (ECON/III)
cuneyt_y@ug.bilkent.edu.tr

If someone had asked me what masochism was, I would say "listening to Metallica," that is, of course, after making sure there isn't anything within the sight of the interviewer that she can use to kill me, because, like everyone else, she probably loves Metallica too. (Haha, I know, as a columnist - yeah I call myself one, what do you know? - I should possess enough common sense to realize that I should listen to some of their songs, at least something other than "Nothing Else Matters," before I pick them as my least favorite band on Earth. I thought that too, but then I realized that there isn't any fun in it, so I will keep it this way. Anyway, what was I talking about? Oh yeah, masochism. But I should get rid of this parenthesis first.) Fortunately, no one has asked me that question yet. 

But if the same person came up with a question like, "Do you know any masochists?" my straight answer would be: "Well you came to the right person." and she would eyeball me and ask, "Oh, yeah? Who is that?" and I would say, "It's me!" and that would obviously be such a relief for her so she would wholeheartedly say, "Thank God! I've finally found you," and I would as much wholeheartedly say, "You're telling me! Could you please turn off the Metallica tape, it's been years I've been lying here listening to that sound of misery," and she would say "Sure," and then we would hug each other and cry for a few hours.

OK, I've exaggerated a little bit, but I definitely am a MASOCHIST, because how else can you explain my deciding to pursue a minor degree in mathematics. I know! How crazy is that?

Let me tell you: very crazy.

The worst thing that you might do during college is to pursue a minor degree in mathematics, except for the case where you are majoring in mathematics. So if you are a masochist, and in our case I am, but can't register as a math major because it's your third year in Economics, which is again the conditions I live in, you can apply for a minor degree in mathematics, and given the masochist I am, this is what I did. And either people in math department are sadists, since they accepted my application without hesitation, or they were so busy with their differential equations that they wanted to get rid of me ASAP. So was I not only a wannabe economist but also a prospective mathematician-who-doesn't-know-much-about-math-at-all.

And just as it happened to you, the idea sounded cool to me too; which was a good sign because not so many things in life sound cool to me (and Metallica isn't one of them). The joy didn't last long, though. It was until that very moment when I realized in one of the classes that there were more to math than differential equations, things like…

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So yeah, just as any other joyful activity, math seems to hide a bitter side of it and it isn't easy to spot because he hides it somewhere behind his find-the-derivative-of-y-with-respect-to-x kind of mask. And when you become close friends with MATH (i.e. applying for a minor in math because you think you guys should spend more time together), you realize that he isn't as cool as he seemed to you at first. How else, could you explain the need to prove stuff because what our ancestors found might not be true? I mean, come on, when did we lose our faith in humanity? How long does it take to trust someone and don't expect him to prove something? Don't you think it's time for you to take off your cynic hat? When will I realize I should end this week's column or Hande Hanım will fire me because it has been 691 words already?