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Some Favorites

A collection of relatively niche writings that I've stumbled upon over the past year or so. These aren't really "recommendations"; it's more of a collection of things that I happened enjoy reading in the moment. (But I thought you might enjoy them anyway.)

Prose

Essays

• There's a lot of good writing on CJ Quines' blog. If you're looking for something thoughtful, you might find "The Long View" and "You Can't Be Everything to Everyone" interesting.
• Something similar in style is "Novelty" from Vincent Huang's blog on the same website.
• The essay "How to Do What You Love" by Paul Graham.
• You should definitely read "A Mathematician's Lament." (Okay, I said that these weren't recommendations, but... you should read this.)
• "Making energy too cheap to meter" from Works In Progress, an argument for producing, well, more energy.

Books

• The Spy and the Traitor by Ben Macintyre is amazingly well-written.
• The Dream Machine by M. Mitchell Waldrop, a story of the personal computer (and a biography).
• The Glass Cage by Nicholas Carr, a critique of automation and the way it changes being human.
• I guess I kind of liked The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. This was a required reading for school, sue me.
• Projective Geometry by T. Ewan Faulkner gives a rather unique perspective on projective geometry. It might be good bedtime reading, who knows. (It's definitely not an introduction to projective geometry.)

Miscellaneous

• I'll probably regret putting this on here at some point, but this tweet?

Poetry

I'll admit it - I don't read a lot of poetry. I'll try to read more, I promise.

• I found "I Saw in Louisiana A Live-Oak Growing" by Walt Whitman pretty thought-provoking to read.

Problems I've written

(2021 CIME II Problem 9) Let $$N$$ be the number of permutations $$(a_1,b_1,a_2,b_2,\ldots,a_6,b_6)$$ of $$(1,2,\ldots,12)$$ with the following property: it is possible to choose one number among $$a_i$$ and $$b_i$$ for each $$1\le i\le6$$ such that the six chosen numbers form an increasing sequence and the six remaining numbers form a decreasing sequence. For example, $$(1,11,10,3,7,6,5,8,9,4,12,2)$$ is one such permutation since we can choose $$(1,3,6,8,9,12)$$ and leave $$(11,10,7,5,4,2)$$. Find the remainder when $$N$$ is divided by $$1000$$.