"How to Read a Book", by Mortimer Adler is both a damning account of our current state of affairs with regards to education in reading and writing, and a brilliant treatise on how one ought to approach the skillful, delicate act of reading. I won’t be approaching any piece of writing quite the same … [Read more...]
Wolfenstein: The New Order – Visceral Totalitarianism
When I bought Wolfenstein: The New Order, a first-person shooter game, I didn't think I'd end up ruminating on personality psychology for days as a result. This game has really left an impression on me like very few others have - especially for one which revolves around shooting Nazis. The tight … [Read more...]
A Didactic Ambition
So I've been struck by an idea. I'd like to take charge of my own "Liberal Arts" education and read all 517 classic works; so called "Great Books of the Western World". Plus or minus a few. These books start from Homeric poems like the Iliad and the Odyssey to other Greek authors such as Aeschylus, … [Read more...]
Analysis 1 | Cauchy Sequences & Completeness
* The following were written up as revision during my mid-semester break, with some corners cut and proofs added where needed. I've skipped the first couple of chapters because they're boring and largely irrelevant.* # Cauchy Sequences Our motivation for defining and investigating Cauchy … [Read more...]
Growing up Part III
I'm constantly reminded of the unrelenting flow of time, and me being dragged along for the ride. I commented to a friend the other day how weird it was that I'm checking the mail every day - so mundane and grown-up in a weird way. My thoughts have been clouded by finance troubles galore (thanks, … [Read more...]
Growing Up Part Deux
So I'm back in Canberra now after several weeks in Sydney finishing up that education research project, and I've now moved out of my residential college with a couple friends to a house in Dickson. Funnily enough, I write this as I sit in a tutorial room in said residential college regardless, … [Read more...]
Did I just psychoanalyze myself with tacos?
They just had $5 tacos here at the youth hostel where I've been staying for the past week or so. I figured, it might be interesting to leave my phone in my room, so I could eat with just myself and my thoughts for a change. My thinking was, "there's been a few random nagging things in the back of … [Read more...]
Network Theory | Preface and Chapter 1
*The following notes are from "A First Course in Network Theory", by Estrada and Knight".* #Preface - Originated from lecture notes - Difficult to balance theory and application, catering to a highly diverse student cluster (in lectures_ - Avoid heavy math bias *(dammit)* - No … [Read more...]
Griffith’s QM | The Wave Function
#The Schrodinger Equation Consider a particle constrained on the x-axis, with mass $m$, subjected to a force $F(x,t)$. - In Classical mechanics, we determined $x(t)$, the position. Then we find $v = \frac{dx}{dt}$ the velocity, and momentum $p = mv$. Finally, we determine the kinetic energy $T … [Read more...]
Griffith’s Quantum Mechanics | Preface
- QM was not created by one individual, and retains 'scars' from its traumatic youth. >'I think I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics.' -Feynman - One cannot understand what quantum mechanics *means* until one understands what it *does*. That's what this book is … [Read more...]