TITLE: Should I study algebra more?
QUESTION [14 upvotes]: My background is about third-year mathematics major, including linear algebra and abstract algebra. I'm now studying Atiyah's commutative algebra, but it lacks some concrete, easy examples and it's too brief to fully understand this subject.
In fact I think I don't like algebra, and I want to study other areas. But I heard that algebra is basic, so you need to study to some graduate level(commutative algebra, algebraic geometry, etc..). Is this true?
Anyway, doing only algebra is a little boring. Can you recommend some interesting branch which is suitable for a third-year student based on differential geometry or differential equations? I was interested in those classes.

REPLY [3 votes]: It is true that all parts of mathematics use some algebra. But you don't have to study commutative algebra to learn the definition of a module. You have already taken courses in linear algebra and abstract algebra. This should be enough if you don't want to learn algebraic geometry or algebraic number theory.