"I loved every minute of it, however hard it had been"

40-60% of the day is unfocused

Pomodoros per week, consistency

Five years of pomodoro

Quantified PhD

PhD qualifying exam -- "Some fairly easy questions about topology"

"I sat in on some talks on general relativity"

"I started to think that maybe I could expand on some of Milner's ideas"

"I would read every math journal in the library's collection"

"I'd read many books on functional analysis"

"During the first semester, I took algebraic topology"

"Life was very simple in those days. It started and ended with math"

"I studied so long and hard I barely had time to think"

"I didn't need much in those days"

"Television held little allure for me"

Exploration in mathematics

Thinking on long drives

Top in the Tripos

Zach Abel

Arnav

"He never seems to be tired"

"Are you sleeping? Are you eating?"

"He finished all the undergraduate classes at UNC"

"Very sharp mind... especially in geometry"

Winding number

"I do a lot of my own work already"

"I don't think I ever had it in me to hide my enthusiasm"

"An excessive ability for focus"

Chinese IMO team

Hilbert panamas