On heroes

I've been reading two autobiographies lately; Stephen Fry's The Fry Chronicles and Confessions of a Conjurer by Derren Brown.

Although I'd hesitate to call Derren Brown a personal hero of mine, Stephen Fry certainly is, and Brown is something of an inspiration.

The books have made me consider both who my heroes actually are and what I'd actually define as a hero.
So, what do I mean by it? They both inspire me, they're both witty, erudite and knowledgable, and they both seem to delight in sharing that knowledge. Moreover, they both seem to be genuinely nice, kind. individuals. The kind of person who would be a favourite uncle or grandfather.

I think though, it's the passion for knowledge that sets them up as something of heroes of mine. This links into the title of the blog (somewhat loosely, but forgive my indulgences, it's my blog after all) too.
This passion is what essentially got me started on the path to mathland. Some background:

My previous degree required a 4 hour(ish) round trip every day for classes. While the morning trip was mostly spent asleep, the evening one was spend in the papery grasp of a book. I read voraciously during my first and second years, when I would make the trip 4 times a week. Initially I began reading popular science books, but branched out into popular maths (a term which still seems oddly juxtaposed to me). The book which had the most immediate impact on me was Infinite Ascent by David Berlinksi. I've since gone back and reread it, and the prose is pretentious even by my standards (and I used juxtaposed in a sentence), but at the time it, to be somewhat cliched, opened new vistas. It exposed me to the beauty of a subject I was middlingly capable at in school, and mostly ignored in university (despite my mother being a math teacher). This led to books by two people I really would consider my heroes; Professor Ian Stewart, of Warwick University and Professor Marcus Du Sautoy of the Mathematical Institute of Oxford University. Both of them are relentless popularisers of mathematics, and their enthusiasm for the subject really shines out from their books. Prof Stewart in particular was instrumental in me going back into undergraduate education through his books. If not for them I'd probably never have gone into maths at all.

Really, that's who my heroes are; people who inspire me to do different things, to change myself, to be good, great or kind when I could otherwise do nothing.