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Bunu ne zamandır buraya koymak istiyordum. Gözlerimden her türlü yaş getiren tek yazıdır.

Photo by Hümeyra Mutlu - Karataş, İzmir (2010)

The reason why one might study a problem may differ:
i) Everybody else is interested in this problem and hence it will be easy to publish whatever comes out of it (fashion).
ii) The solution seems not so far away and it is time to publish something (publish or perish).
iii) The problem is interesting (altruism).

It is difficult to find people of the third category these days (nostalgia). Even if you begin your carrier in the third category circumstances may force you to change your problem, and hence your category; now you are in the second category. After a while you will discover that what pleases your dean is only the number of articles that are being produced and not even the number of total pages, let alone the content. Now you are in the first category and at nights in your dreams you see Gauss waving his finger at you! (from On Arf Rings by Sinan Sertöz).

Kendimi içip bardaktan / Tutuşup sigaramdan / Alev alev toz duman / Yangın olurum geceyarısı. (Yadigar, Fikret Kızılok).

I don't know what it means to understand the process of nature perfectly. I don't know what a theory of everything could be. Is it a series of formulas? How could that be? It doesn't make any sense. So I would have to say that I simply can't imagine why any sane person would imagine, discuss, or mention, except insultingly, the concept of a theory of everything. It's a stupidity. (from an interview with Sheldon Glashow).

This reminds me of a joke a friend told me recently: A lapsed Catholic named Michael had an important meeting and couldn't find a parking space. Looking up to heaven, he said, "Lord, take pity on me. If you find me a parking space, I'll go to Mass every Sunday for the rest of my life." Miraculously, a parking space appeared. Michael looked up again and said, "Never mind, I found one." (Sy Safransky's Notebook, The Sun Magazine).

"dibe vurup dağılayım ihtimaller denizinde" (Yüksek Sadakat).

"First you must know how I am called. My "name" is Foraminifera 9-Hart Bailey's Beam, and I am of adequate age and size. (If you doubt this, I am prepared to fight.) Once the—the tediety of life, as you might say, had made itself clear to me, there were, of course, only two alternatives. I do not like to die, so that possibility was out; and the remaining alternative was light." (Frederik Pohl, The Day of the Boomer Dukes).

Makas (Murathan Mungan, Kırk Oda).

Photo by Sean Chiappetta

"Spurred by the exciting demands of the Cold War the Atomic Energy Commission, soon after our technicians had shown what they could do (Hiroshima, Nagasaki), began to promote an intensive search for uranium." (Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire).

"... No names have been changed to protect the innocent, since God Almighty protects the innocent as a matter of Heavenly routine." (Kurt Vonnegut, The Sirens of Titan).

Photo by Hümeyra Mutlu - Karataş, İzmir (2010)