Almost a half mathematician

There was a joke about a physicist and a mathematician.

One day a physicist and a mathematician were instructed about using electric teapot.  So the instructor put a teapot in front of them and told “See, here is the teapot. Pour water into it, connect and switch on.  Wait until the water boils.  Here are the tea bags. Put a bag into a cup and pour hot water. Take sugar according to taste.”

After that he gave two men two teapot full of water.

The physicist switched on and did the rest as per instruction.

 The mathematician first emptied the teapot, and only then did everything as per instruction. Initial condition, that matters most to him.

Yesterday I was already on the second floor and heading for my office, when a lady asked me to follow her to sign a document. Her office is on the first floor. Once I did that, I took another path to my office. And as usual climb up (I usually take the stairs, as due to light weight, not every lift lifts me).  And I found something wrong. It seemed to me, everything was new there, picture, arrangements. For two three minutes I tried to understand (In fact I was not sure, as though I am sitting here for more than 10 years, I hardly look at the walls. And I dully enter into nearby rooms only to find that I have missed mine). Finally I could realize that it was 3rd floor and somehow I missed my floor. Reconstructing the whole episode I remembered that I was on 1st floor and by habit climbed two levels.

Had I been a mathematician I would have gone down to ground floor first before climbing two levels. Being a physicist I started from where I was, but like a mathematician climbed two levels only to come down one to reach my office.