Andrew Wiles

I know it's a rare privilege, but if one can really tackle something in adult life that means that much to you, then it's more rewarding than anything I can imagine. ↗

— Andrew Wiles

#adult life #anything #i #i can #imagine

I loved doing problems in school. ↗

— Andrew Wiles

#i #loved #problems #school

I realized that anything to do with Fermat's Last Theorem generates too much interest. ↗

— Andrew Wiles

#fermat #generates #i #interest #last

I tried to fit it in with some previous broad conceptual understanding of some part of mathematics that would clarify the particular problem I was thinking about. ↗

— Andrew Wiles

#broad #clarify #conceptual #fit #i

I was so obsessed by this problem that I was thinking about it all the time - when I woke up in the morning, when I went to sleep at night - and that went on for eight years. ↗

— Andrew Wiles

#eight #i #morning #night #obsessed

It could be that the methods needed to take the next step may simply be beyond present day mathematics. Perhaps the methods I needed to complete the proof would not be invented for a hundred years. ↗

— Andrew Wiles

#complete #could #day #hundred #i

It's fine to work on any problem, so long as it generates interesting mathematics along the way - even if you don't solve it at the end of the day. ↗

— Andrew Wiles

#any #day #end #end of the day #even

Just because we can't find a solution it doesn't mean that there isn't one. ↗

— Andrew Wiles

#find #just #just because #mean #solution

Perhaps the methods I needed to complete the proof would not be invented for a hundred years. So even if I was on the right track, I could be living in the wrong century. ↗

— Andrew Wiles

#complete #could #even #hundred #i

That particular odyssey is now over. My mind is now at rest. ↗

— Andrew Wiles

#now #odyssey #over #particular #rest