Use the Feynman method: Richard Feynman was fond of giving the following advice on how to be a genius. You have to keep a dozen of your favorite problems constantly present in your mind, although by and large they will lay in a dormant state. Every time you hear or read a new trick or a new result, test it against each of your twelve problems to see whether it helps. Gian-Carlo Rota

Quantum Field Theory Resources:

Homotopical and Algebraic QFT by Donald Yau

Lecture notes on 2-dimensional defect TQFT by Nils Carqueville.

One dimensional topological theories with defects: the linear case by Mikhail Khovanov.

Field Theories with defects and the center functor by Davydov, Kong, and Runkel

Cohomological Field Theory Resources:

Cohomological Field Theory Calculations by Rahul Pandharipande

Stacks and Deformation Theory resources:

The unbearable lightness of deformation theory by Balazs Szendroi

Deformation Quantization Resources:

Operads and Motives in Deformation Quantization by Maxim Kontsevich

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