“Why do you wear such baggy tops?” I asked, holding her gray top to my chest so I could measure.

“Are you kidding? D’you know how tiny that would look on you?”

I raised an eyebrow. “Really?”

“Try it on.”

“No.”

“Just to see.”

“No.”

“It’ll be funny.”

“No.”

“Why not?”

I sighed dramatically.

“First it’s a little innocent, ‘Try this on. It’ll be funny!’. Next, it’ll be, ‘You’d look hilarious in a skirt. Let’s just see.’ And then before you know it, our little game will involve high heels, hot pants, and a camera. That’s one slippery slope. I ain’t playin’.”

On February 9th, 2010, I officially accepted a position with the Princeton mathematics department—to begin in September.

And so now, hopefully the reason why I took my blog offline since November 2009 will become abundantly clear. I suppose I just couldn’t risk any of the potential hiring committees googling me, only to find out about the time I…

…Well, you can go to the archives and dig up whatever dirt you like, I s’pose.

Applications for the 2010 year were–I was told–one of the most competitive in decades (because of the American economy); a lot of schools had cut back on the number of positions they were offering; sometimes from three or four, to maybe only one or two. So when you take in account the fact that there were only a handful of positions at the top institutions, you see how lucky I was to have received multiple offers to choose from. In the end, however, it came down to two.

My two final choices were so different in benefits that I decided choosing one over the other might one day lead me to two different careers.

The first choice was the safer one. I was offered an Assistant Professorship (non-tenured) at a leading research institution. There, I’d be working on a subject I’m rather familiar with. It’d be comfortable and I’d be happy.

The second choice (Princeton’s) was the riskier one. I’d be moving to a mathematics department which—let’s face facts—has a non-existant applied group, and I’d be doing something I know absolutely nothing about (at least for the moment). But I also realized that this option would lead to bigger payoffs in the future. I’d be a better mathematician, having dabbled in a wider range of disciplines.

Comfort and stability? Or big risk and big rewards?

In the end, it was an easy decision.

After all, when have I ever sought comfort and stability?

That’s for suckers, yo.

And….we’re back.

Just so you guys know, I’m going to temporarily shut-off my blog in a few days, in the sense that it’ll redirect to my work page. I’ll probably remain shut-off until January-February 2010, but we’ll see how things go.

The temporary closure is for personal reasons. But it’s nothing bad, so don’t worry.

As always, e-mail me if you want to chat. S’not like I’m lonely or anything…