Summary of Luís and João Batalha: Fermat's Library and the Art of Studying Papers | Lex Fridman Podcast #209

This is an AI generated summary. There may be inaccuracies.
Summarize another video · Purchase summarize.tech Premium

00:00:00 - 01:00:00

In this video, Luis and João Batalha discuss the importance of accessibility and transparency in academic papers. They also talk about the negative impact of the current business model for journals, and suggest that paper 2.0 might look different in the future.

00:00:00 The brothers' library provides a platform for annotating papers as they are written, and the Mars library Twitter account provides visual explorations of mathematics. The brothers discuss the importance of backstory in understanding scientific ideas, and how free dissemination of ideas helps drive old ideas out and bring new, better ones in.
00:05:00 In this video, Luis Batalha discusses his book Fermat's Library, which is about his journey from a PhD student to the fields of metal and machine learning. He talks about how his background in mathematics and physics helped him to make important breakthroughs, and how the backstory of his research can make it more memorable and easier to remember. He also mentions the importance of having a physical manifestation of a problem to help you develop a solution, and how personality can influence how a researcher solves a problem.
00:10:00 Luís and João Batalha discuss the importance of having a good backstory in terms of the personalities of great scientists like Newton, Feynman and Freud. They also discuss the importance of alchemy, which symbolizes dreaming of the impossible.
00:15:00 Lex Fridman talks to Luis and João Batalha, two scientists who are still curious and engaged in their work at age 90 and 92, respectively. The two discuss Vermonter's Library, a platform that aims to make academic papers more accessible and easier to understand.
00:20:00 The video discusses how the Mars library works to make scientific papers available to a wider audience. It also mentions how journal clubs and the librarian browser extension are designed to make research easier.
00:25:00 The video discusses the importance of Archive.com, a website where scientists can share preprints before they are published in journals. The transcript also mentions the Information Exchange Group (IEG), a 1960s project that was cancelled due to pressure from journals.
00:30:00 Luís Batalha discusses the importance of preprint repositories and how they have revolutionized the way papers are submitted and reviewed in biology. He then discusses how Stack Overflow, a site where users can ask and answer questions, was revolutionized by one individual or small group of contributors.
00:35:00 Stack overflow is a website where users can answer thousands of questions or write thousands of factoids in a fun, entertaining, and pleasant environment. This video discusses how the community thrives despite capturing very little value. Peer review is important, but there are other ways to be productive in academia.
00:40:00 The video discusses the problem with the impact factor, which is a way to measure the importance of a paper. Papers with high impact factors are often written by researchers who have a goal of increasing their university's ranking, which can lead to unethical behavior. The video also discusses a book called "Gaming the Metrics" which discusses this issue in greater detail.
00:45:00 Luis and João Batalha discuss the negative consequences of metrics-driven academia, and how peer review can be improved.
00:50:00 The video discusses the idea of journals being overlaid with journals that remove the traditional review process. The goal is to make the review process more transparent and to encourage young researchers to publish their work on these "open" journals.
00:55:00 The author of the video, Luis Batalha, points out that the business model for journals, which relies on charging researchers for access to their papers, is not effective and is likely to fail in the future. He suggests that paper 2.0 might look different, involving formalizing scientific discoveries into a link that is unique and easy to reference.

01:00:00 - 02:00:00

In the video, Luis and João Batalha discuss the importance of taking good notes while reading papers, and the potential benefits of doing so after understanding the material. They also offer suggestions on how to structure such notes in order to make them easier to revisit and remember.

01:00:00 Luis and João Batalha discuss the process of reading papers, advising people to read them multiple times, and the importance of understanding the opinions injected into related work.
01:05:00 Luis and João Batalha discuss the value of taking good notes while reading papers, and the potential benefits of doing so after understanding the material. They also offer suggestions on how to structure such notes in order to make them easier to revisit and remember.
01:10:00 The Lex Fridman podcast features Luis and João Batalha discussing Fermat's Library and the art of studying papers. Batalha notes that notes can't capture the deep understanding that audio can, and that when he revisits a paper for some reason, audio brings him right back to where he was when reading it. He recommends podcasting versions of papers with video components to reach a wider audience. George, the founder of comma dot ai, is an excellent example of someone who is skilled at multiple disciplines and can draw attention to his work.
01:15:00 Luís and João Batalha discuss how papers can be studied and annotated to improve one's understanding of the topic. They discuss a paper about a tunnel in Greek island off the coast of Turkey that was built in the 6th century BC. The tunnel was incorrectly thought to have been built using a method described in ancient historians. Researchers went to the island and found the correct way to build the tunnel.
01:20:00 The video discusses a paper titled "Luís and João Batalha: Fermat's Library and the Art of Studying Papers," which describes how an ancient egyptian historian used tools to measure terrain and then used that information to build a tunnel. The paper's author, a mathematician, presents possible methods that were used to build the tunnel, including an iron sight on a rifle. After the Roman Empire fell, people stopped building tunnels for a thousand years. Late medieval builders started again, but with limited mathematics. In the 6th century BC, the builders constructed a tunnel using instruments and techniques that were common in ancient Greece and Rome. After the paper was published, more research was done into the tunnel, which revealed interesting historical context. Anyone can comment on an annotation, and the author occasionally responds to comments.
01:25:00 The video discusses the importance of publicly annotating papers, and how this helps to keep discussions and ideas around a paper alive. It also introduces the idea of using images to calculate energy, and how this was done by two famous mathematicians. The video concludes by discussing how this method can be used to understand events that occur far away in time, such as the Beirut explosion.
01:30:00 In this video, Luis and João Batalha discuss Fermat's Library and the art of studying papers. They note that the paper "Bitcoin: A Simple Mathematical Model" is one of the most popular papers on the ModDB journal club website. They also discuss the concept of the dyson sphere, which is an idea proposed by Freeman Dyson.
01:35:00 Luís Batalha and João Batalha discuss the annotations they have made to papers from Fermat's Library, the importance of annotating papers, and the example of the Sulk Conjecture.
01:40:00 Luis and João Batalha discuss Fermat's Library and the Art of Studying Papers. They discuss how the mathematical community reacted to Pearman's work and how Batalha believes that it is the product of a Russian school of mathematics.
01:45:00 Luis and João Batalha discuss the idea that in order for a society to have true excellence in any field, it should value knowledge and skill in that field as highly as it values physical prowess. They also mention Cedric Villani, a French mathematician who, after winning the Fields Medal, decided to enter politics in order to have an impact on scientific research.
01:50:00 Luís and João Batalha talk about the importance of role models, and how important it is to have different types of personalities in the field of mathematics. They also mention Terence Tao, a famous mathematician who is currently alive. They discuss the problem of the erdos discrepancy, and how Tao's blog post helped him solve it.
01:55:00 Luís Batalha talks about how he struggled in his early years as a mathematician, but eventually found success by studying papers more deeply and developing a rigorous process for revealing the beauty in mathematics. He also touches on the power of social media and how it can be used to learn new information more easily.

02:00:00 - 02:50:00

Luís and João Batalha discuss their approach to studying papers, how they know when they're stuck, and how to persist through difficult times. They also discuss the importance of persistence and vision in starting a successful business or research project, and the challenges of pivoting when running out of ideas or when something is not working.

02:00:00 Luis and João Batalha discuss how they approach studying papers, how they know when they're stuck, and how to persist through difficult times.
02:05:00 Luís Batalha discusses the importance of persistence and vision in starting a successful business or research project. He also discusses the challenges of pivoting when running out of ideas or when something is not working.
02:10:00 The Lex Fridman Podcast discusses the potential for revolutionizing the annotation, commenting, and aggregation of information around knowledge structures with the help of Luis Batalha's work on Fermat's Library. While some of the ideas are still in development, the potential for such a venture is clear.
02:15:00 Luís and João Batalha discuss the mathematical theory behind the Battle of Winterfell in Season 5 of "Game of Thrones." Batalha describes how he worked out the approximate ratio of soldiers needed to win the battle, based on the size of the armies. This information was later shared on the show and resonated with viewers.
02:20:00 Luís and João Batalha discuss the various mathematical concepts used in science fiction and fantasy, including Fermat's last theorem, calculus, and the Riemann hypothesis. They also talk about the greatest footballers of all time. João Batalha identifies Ronaldo as the greatest player of all time, and Luís Batalha argues that anyone can be great at soccer if they have talent and work ethic.
02:25:00 Luís and João Batalha discuss the idea that hard work and talent can both contribute to success, as well as the human story of Ronaldo and Messi.
02:30:00 Luís and João Batalha discuss the beauty of studying papers, specifically in the field of basketball, and how computer vision could be used to track players and the ball more effectively.
02:35:00 Luis and João Batalha discuss their love of analyzing papers and how it has led to their enjoyment of studying forensic science. They discuss how analyzing a long-form podcast can be a valuable way to measure a person's thoughtful nature.
02:40:00 Luís and João Batalha discuss the research behind the idea that practice makes perfect in terms of free throws. They discuss how this research can be applied to other areas of sports, such as field goals.
02:45:00 Luís and João Batalha discuss Fermat's Library and the art of studying papers, with particular focus on the usefulness of psychology in quantitative fields. They discuss the advice they would give to young people today in regards to pursuing a career in science and mathematics.
02:50:00 In this conversation, Louise and Joe Albertalla discuss the importance of exploration and the benefits of having a background in physics. They also reflect on the life of physicist and Nobel Prize laureate Richard Feynman. Richard Feynman famously said, "Nobody ever figures out what life is all about. And it doesn't matter. Explore the world, nearly everything is interesting if you go into it deeply enough."