Would you mind sharing more on your learning experience in solitude?
What books/resources you had at your disposal?
What was it like having to grok things without being able to ping-pong on understanding with peers (in what would be a study group)?
EDIT: line breaks.
My learning method was to try to get up to three texts on the same subject, so I could compare different treatments of the material. This was beneficial because if one text was unclear, I could compare with how the other texts explained this concept and it would hopefully dawn upon me what is right and makes sense. Other than that, I can say that I was at it 8 to 10 hours a day and in many respects, it was my one form of entertainment. I solved PDE's or proved theorems like other people did sudoku or crosswords. I looked at the problems as puzzles and tried very hard to solve them because it was all I had that was amusing. I also became very aware of how beautiful mathematics is and I truly began to love it. That passion helped a lot.
This reminds me of a similar thing you see with people who manage to escape the trap of abusive or just otherwise bad parents. Many people fall into mimicking those same behaviors later in life, or are just so psychologically damaged by them that it significantly hampers their future quality of life. Of course, some people do manage to have positive, productive lives despite terrible childhood experiences, but on average those who do tend to have above-average intelligence; they're able to rationalize what happened to them, and thereby have some control over its effects.
I'm just surprised they allowed you to read at all. Is it common?
Also, how old were you then?
That seems to go against what Wikipedia says? It says it's primarily about punishment rather than safety:
> [Solitary confinement] is mostly employed as a form of punishment beyond incarceration for a prisoner, usually for violations of prison regulations. However, it is also used as an additional measure of protection for vulnerable inmates.
Well, you get all the way to the standard model, so not so bad. I suppose the book quality might have been a problem though.