Then when I reached college I realized that many people had thought about the problem during the 18th and 19th centuries and so I studied those methods.
method people
I had this rare privilege of being able to pursue in my adult life, what had been my childhood dream.
dreams tso-life
I know it's a rare privilege, but if one can really tackle something in adult life that means that much to you, then it's more rewarding than anything I can imagine.
tso-life
It's fine to work on any problem, so long as it generates interesting mathematics along the way - even if you don't solve it at the end of the day.
theend work
I was so obsessed by this problem that I was thinking about it all the time - when I woke up in the morning, when I went to sleep at night - and that went on for eight years.
sleep thetimes time
There's also a sense of freedom. I was so obsessed by this problem that I was thinking about if all the time - when I woke up in the morning, when I went to sleep at night, and that went on for eight years.
I loved doing problems in school. I'd take them home and make up new ones of my own.
home
But the best problem I ever found, I found in my local public library.
thepublic
I grew up in Cambridge in England, and my love of mathematics dates from those early childhood days.
tso-love
Pure mathematicians just love to try unsolved problems - they love a challenge.
challenge tso-love
That particular odyssey is now over. My mind is now at rest.
mind rest
I really believed that I was on the right track, but that did not mean that I would necessarily reach my goal.
rights
Perhaps the methods I needed to complete the proof would not be invented for a hundred years. So even if I was on the right track, I could be living in the wrong century.
method proof rights wrongs
It could be that the methods needed to take the next step may simply be beyond present day mathematics. Perhaps the methods I needed to complete the proof would not be invented for a hundred years.
method proof
Fermat said he had a proof.
proof