Summer School Prep

So, it is that time of year.

I’ve got to give three introductory lectures on string theory in a Summer school somewhere in Mexico next week. So I must break away from intense work on The Project (which is going well, so maybe you will hear about it sometime soonish(ish)….) and focus on how to cram all the cream into three comprehensible and useful lectures. I hate overdoing the “it can be shown” line that ends up making the whole thing seem like magic (as is so often done), so this is always a challenge. Here’s how my preparation usually goes (and indeed it went this way this week):

(1) I rummage in various places in two office looking for old lecture notes to base my new lectures on, and wonder whether that time spent looking might be better spent writing new notes from scratch.

(2) I wonder why I don’t put the lecture notes all in the same place so that I can find them when I need them…

(3) Then a day or two later, I remember. I have had that thought (in (2)) before! I do keep them in the same place. I think for a minute and reach over to the right spot on the shelf and there they are. Sigh.

Now it is time to read over the notes, decide I don’t like them after all, and write three completely new lectures. Yay!

-cvj