You can love a subject deeply and still feel like exams are destroying you. You can work hard, care a lot, and still walk out of an exam room feeling like you’ve failed. With A-Level Results Day just around the corner, I’ve been thinking a lot about how the pressure, the grades, and the system … Continue reading Exams, Burnout, and Finding Balance
Author: Shub Das
The Case for Side Projects
I used to think (and honestly, I still do sometimes) that I needed to “learn everything first” before starting a programming project. I’d spent hours reading textbooks or watching YouTube videos feeling like I was “being productive”. But I’ve never actually code. Part of me was scared of getting it wrong, of producing something “rubbish”. … Continue reading The Case for Side Projects
The National Cipher Challenge – More Than Just Codebreaking
I’ve been meaning to write about how I got into codebreaking, so here’s the start of a small series on maths, ciphers, and curiosity. A lot of experiences have shaped the curious, questioning person I am today, but I wasn’t always like this. Looking back, one of the biggest turning points came in Year 10, … Continue reading The National Cipher Challenge – More Than Just Codebreaking
Can a Machine ever be Conscious?
Introduction This post is adapted from a 5000-word essay I wrote for my sixth-form research project discussing whether a machine could ever be conscious. If you’re curious, a link to the full essay PDF with references is attached at the end of this blog.1 My blog doesn’t intend to dive straight into number crunching or … Continue reading Can a Machine ever be Conscious?
Rekindling
It’s been exactly 20 days since my last A-Level exam. And honestly? I thought I’d feel free. But instead, I’ve been left with this strange, heavy emptiness, a kind of grief almost. It feels as if I’ll never be able to enjoy learning again, or find anything that lights me up the way maths once … Continue reading Rekindling
Maths Rant 