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  • The Paris Review

    Prime Numbers

    by Anthony Madrid Apr 25, 2018 3 minutes

    I suppose there are mathematicians out there “working on prime numbers.” I don’t know if there are. There probably are. They’re putting on coffee at 11 o’clock at night. They’re getting upset at each other on email, cussing. Or adopting “withering tones.” They’re working.

    I myself don’t work on prime numbers. I work … on working on prime numbers. Not really. I’ve given the matter some thought. I  work on prime numbers for a few ecstatic days in the year 1999. That was the outcome of more than 10 years of brooding.. And now I brood over people who brood about prime numbers. I understand them. 

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