When I first watched Cosmos back in February 2021, I didn’t realise it would become one of the most comforting things I’d ever seen. I had just turned 14 at that time, and there was something about Carl Sagan’s gentle and reverent voice that made me ponder about life in a way I didn’t expect. … Continue reading Lessons from a Pale Blue Dot
From 0 Bars to 5G: What’s Really Going On
Ever wondered why you sometimes get perfect signal in some random field in Wales but can't even load a message while inside a lift? Or how you're able to make an emergency call even when your phone says No Service? Or why your phone switches from 4G to 3G (or refuses to load anything at … Continue reading From 0 Bars to 5G: What’s Really Going On
Becoming a ‘Mathemagician’: The 27 Card Trick
I love a deck of cards. It's amazing to think about all the things that can be done with cards- from card games to building a house of cards to just shuffling mindlessly. One of my absolute favourite things1 is learning and performing card tricks. There's something deeply satisfying about sleight-of-hand tricks which can leave … Continue reading Becoming a ‘Mathemagician’: The 27 Card Trick
Exams, Burnout, and Finding Balance
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
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 