Ever been fiddling around at your desk in the office, wondering if some grander structure might come from an assemblage of paper clips, pens, and binder clips? You’re not alone. Let your mind contemplate these beautiful maths sculptures from [Zachary Abel].
[Zachary] has a knack for both three-dimensional forms and the artistic use of color. His Möbius Clips sculpture ably takes 110 humble pieces of office equipment in multiple colors, and laces them into a continuous strip that has beguiled humanity for generations. The simple paper clip becomes a dodecahedron, a colorful spiralling ball, or a tightly-stitched box. He does great things with playing cards too.
What elevates his work is that there’s a mathematical structure to it. It’s so much more than a pile of stationary, there’s always a geometry, a pattern which your mind latches on to when you see it. He also often shares the mathematical background behind his work, too.
If you’re fumbling about with the contents of your desk drawer while another Zoom meeting drags on, you might want to challenge yourself to draw from [Zachary’s] example. If you pull off something fantastical, do let us know!
It must be nice to have a job that has so much free time.
That was my first thought too. Then I remembered my first burnt college as a chemist. I would set up reactions overnight then stay till like 2am making sure it went ok. One night, bored out of my mind, I made a lazy boy style chair out of old cardboard boxes. My boss came in next morning and flipped out and accused me having too much free time. After I was there till 2am and back in by 7am. Yeah i quit that job.
First job out of college that should say.
I think he lapsused “burn out”… I can relate, even though “bore out” is probably more appropriate.
In my anecdotal experience, all desk jobs become eventually like that, once you have mastered what is expected of you, which usually takes 3-6 months after hiring. Only circumstance when it is otherwise is, when you have a crazy or abusive boss (brings a great dose of unpredictability into your daily routine).
This is why I don’t understand why many HR are so hell bent on long work experiences on resume. Someone who stays several years on the same job is most likely either incompetent ,happy to be bored, or doing his own stuff on the side. Yet they keep insisting on that… well, whatever I guess.
Or if you’re a professional mathematician, just have it literally be your job: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MesBw3gF6Vs
Parts of my job (not a lot, but several weeks a year worth of time) entail clicking on something, then waiting 30-90 seconds for something to get computed, then clicking the next thing. Not enough time to do something productive otherwise, but too long to just wait it out for my ADD mind.
Usually I just watch low-intensity youtube videos (hour-long car restauration videos) but doing something like this would work as well.