De✓

I'm De. I did my bachelor's degree somewhere in a French-speaking country. I did my M1 'Parcours Fondamentales' and M2 spécialité Géométrie Algébrique. Then I did my master's (again) in mathematical physics. And now I'm working at this company where uhm (cough cough) unlike Mr. Cox something! I'll get sued if I share anything about the company!! So let's not connect!!

Under my dictatorship, anyone who speaks outside their expertise gets punished by calling Clavicular “daddy” for a whole year!! Imagine everyone at OpenAI having to call Clavicular “daddy” awesome!!

LMAO!! a non-constructive proof that ETH is false would collapse the polynomial hierarchy in ways we don't even fully understand! Can't wait to see the new “semantic faithfulness” aka slop!!

The computer science collaboration will understand and explain a result concerning the Exponential Time Hypothesis (ETH), a longstanding conjecture about the computational complexity of Boolean formula satisfiability, a problem deeply related to the P vs. NP problem. Surprisingly, our system has recently proved that the ETH is false, a result that was subsequently verified in Lean. The refutation of the ETH reopens questions about how much faster these tasks could become, and may help guide the search for better algorithms. Finding such algorithms, and turning theoretical advances into practical improvements, will require significant further research. Our system found its natural language disproof for the ETH we reached out to to @rrwilliams. Ryan will form a collaboration with Russell Impagliazzo and Ramamohan Paturi to verify and shepherd this result. Impagliazzo and Paturi, along with Francis Zane, are the original proposers of the Exponential Time Hypothesis, and Williams has refuted strong versions of the ETH, used ETH for hardness results, and connected algorithms and lower bounds. This group asked us to make all raw data of the results public to facilitate independent verification by the community, which we have done by posting the natural language proof and Lean formalization to our GitHub repo. The group also invites the community to help organize an open examination of the ETH claim and to discuss the broader questions that AI-generated breakthroughs raise about verification, access, credit, and the future of research.

Wait!! how do you even formally verify in Lean that a fast algorithm exists without writing it??!! Doesn't lean require explicit constructions?? If they formalized a non-constructive proof that ETH is false, they just formalized a logical trick (diagonalization, compactness and yada yada) that proves a contradiction! But does that trick actually map to the real world of turing machines???? Awesome, but whatever it's past midnight. I need my beauty sleep!!

The end of year performance reviews just came out!! Mine was basically: Really smart, compliment, compliment, compliment… intimidating. I got two “intimidating” reviews from people with HIGHER job grades than mine!! UNBELIEVABLE!! I’m literally the sweetest person ever!! There’s nothing intimidating about me!! 😭

So my brother (the second-born) is flying back to the US tomorrow, and he and the firstborn have decided that tonight is the PERFECT time to introduce me to… “alcohol” Me: LEAVE ME AND MY CHOCOMELK ALONE!! Them: but… Me: y guys should be happy your little sis isn’t ms. aucoholism!! Second-born: what about that rule of yours? The what if you tested something something Firstborn: Is a rule really yours if you don’t occasionally test its weight? Me: WOW. JUST WOW!!

At a science museum!! My date is so smart! He smells so good! And he understands seven languages, but he rarely talks. Which is why I'm so happy when he “explains” the big bang to me! Like please mansplain me, baby!! P.s he’s mad at me because I didn't wear a Woody shirt and he wore Buzz Lightyear!!

We did the “which rock/mineral are you” thing! Like standing in front of a giant monitor that tells you your match. He got Muscovite, I got Rhodochrosite. (In my defense, I blushed way too hard!! my face was up there and everyone could see it) but I got a free necklace tho…so yeay 😅

When I was in high school, they told me I should do volunteer work to boost my college application, especially if I wanted to get into that Ivy League uni!! Apparently it didn’t matter that my grandpa, my papa, and brother all went there!! Being a legacy baby wasn’t enough!! So I started volunteering at this place where we’d write letters and send presents to kids. (Birthday presents, gws presents, back to school presents, Christmas presents… you name it!!) But eventually, I decided to quit!! Because… well I felt like a fraud knowing why I’d started doing it in the first place!! Except… I didn’t actually want to stop doing it!! So I asked the director if I could keep helping, and I didn’t mean just making donations every month!! Long story short!! Every two months, they send me a list of kids and a little background story about each of them. And I get to put together their presents and write them cards I just finished wrapping nine presents!! (Still waiting for two more packages to arrive!!) Now comes my favorite part… writing the cards!! P.s one of the kids just wants a pair of Nike shoes for school!! 😭

Today years ago, I got the last call from my mom. She asked me her “usual” questions: “Did you sleep well?” “Did you eat something delicious?” “Did you laugh today?” And all I said was “I'm at the library, let's talk again later” Somewhere around 1 in the morning, my brother (the firstborn) called me. He asked what I was doing and I told him “still studying!” Then he said “De, Papa just called me.” That's it… and I understood immediately. He told me to sleep and that he'd arrange for me to come home. The three of us weren't in the country at that time the firstborn was in the UK, the second born was in the US… and I was somewhere I remember when I came home, it was so gloomy. My dad was at the library… reading. The first thing he said when he saw me was that I looked like I hadn't eaten for weeks, and if my mom saw me like that, she'd start cooking and that would be bad news for us, because my mom was a terrible chef (she was an awesome baker tho) I was so disassociated before and after the funeral because of so much argument. My dad wanted to honor my mom's wishes: to be cremated and to let her ashes be spread not in one specific spot because she refused to let her beloved mourn her by visiting that place often. And my brothers wanted her to be buried for that exact reason… so we could still visit her Anyway… my brothers just came back from cycling nowhere and everywhere, because we don't know where my mom's ashes were spread. And I'm staying in bed because I'm not feeling well If God does exist or if there's an afterlife then may the sweat that has ever dropped from your tired forehead, may every tear that has ever fallen from your beautiful eyes, become a sanctuary for us to meet again someday.

Alright, done!! Now I'll return this company badge and head back to my country

Now that I’ve given up on this particular dream, I can finally tell you that… once upon a time, I wanted to do a PhD in category theory!! My grand “vision” was to define factorization algebras on derived stacks, connect them to vertex algebras via the Beilinson–Drinfeld approach, and eventually apply the whole machinery to supersymmetric QFTs!! Both of my brothers were like: “ARE YOU INSANE, DE?! NO!! ABSOLUTELY NOT!!” The firstborn: You’d need to develop a suitable factorization formalism over derived stacks, define a sheaf theory compatible with the derived structure, and prove the necessary functoriality and locality properties. And that’s BEFORE you even get to SUSY QFT!! The second-born: THAT’S A MULTIYEAR RESEARCH PROGRAM, IDIOT!! DON’T DO IT!! (He used the F word tho!) And that ladies and gentlemen, is how my dreams of becoming a category theorist died!!

Conversation with a bunch of five yo that would be illegal if they weren't LITTLE HUMANS! LH1: Your eyes have bling bling Me: (trying to explain the science behind light reflection) LH2: You smell like a Chupa Chups LH1: No, it's ice cream Me: It's my perfume. It's vanilla scented LH3: Do you taste like an ice cream too? Me: I'm sorry? LH1: Can I taste you? I like ice cream Me: You want to bite me? LH2 & LH3: Yeah, I like ice cream too. Me: …

I don't know why their parents keep “trusting” me to babysit them

Painting session with the little human!! Me: awww is that a robot? Him: no. A Poincaré plot Me: huh? Also me: OH COME ON!! Your dad already taught you toroidal plasma?!! But you have to be a category theorist!! AND I’M BETTER THAN YOUR DAD AT THIS!!! SO UNFAIR!!

Me: can little human have a sleepover at my place tonight? My brother: you just dyed your hair blonde and instead of going out, you want to babysit my son? Me: first of all, it's cappuccino, not blonde! Second, just let me be happy, okay! My beloved brother: this is sad

Nine books that are simply “not it” FOR ME!! Please underline “FOR ME” (twice) And before anyone comes at me with “Tell me you haven’t read much without telling me you haven’t read much” My God!! Can a girl dislike a book without having to defend her entire intellectual existence?!!

J'ai remarqué que chaque fois qu'un mathématicien donne son avis sur les maths et l'IA, il y a toujours quelqu'un pour demander “mais toi, qu'est-ce que tu as accompli en tant que mathématicien?” ou “Il fait quoi, un mathématicien toute la journée?” Mon Dieu!! Le plus drôle, c'est que certains d'entre nous ne peuvent même pas parler de leur travail publiquement!! I can't even tweet in my own language because they'll find me! (Bref bonjour aux RH si vous lisez ceci!! Je promets que je me tiens bien!!)

Because I'm a law-abiding citizen! Goody two-shoes! I ended up walking home pushing my bike because the light on it isn't working! It's fine… it's just 10 PM! And I just worked for 13 hours! And skipped dinner! And I forgot my jacket! What a wonderful day!

I mentioned to a colleague that I once ate this biscuit I liked when I was in Lake Como. And he found it for me! Grazie mille, bro

Last month when I was admitted to the hospital, the doctor ran a full panel and told me I have several issues!! Apparently I'm malnourished! I was like “I'm sorry?! That can't be right!! I eat a lot!” Doctor: That's not how it works. You're 158cm, 53kg, with micronutrient deficiencies, likely iron, B12, and vitamin D. Your BMI is normal, but your intake quality is poor Long story short, I now have a nutritionist managing my dietary rehabilitation whatever!! Regardless… this is my breakfast. I'm busy, okay