Newsletter Get the best of The New Yorker in your in-box every day. Submit Privacy Policy Sign in Shop News Books & Culture Fiction & Poetry Humor & Cartoons Magazine Crossword Video Podcasts Archive Festival Subscribe Subscribe Annals of Inquiry By Dan Rockmore November 7, 2019 Illustration by Ana Galvañ Where do ideas come from? That’s a big question. Here’s a smaller one: Where do mathematical ideas come from? I’ve wondered about this from the time I first contemplated being a mathematician until long after I officially became one. My earliest memory of anything like a mathematical idea comes from a childhood walk with my dad. We left the house and made our way toward downtown Metuchen, the tiny town in central Jersey where I grew up, to a little luncheonette called the Corner Confectionery. I can still picture it: the rack of newspapers, magazines, and comic books; the ice-cream tre...