Welcome!

This is the start of a project I’ve wanted to do for a while and only just got around to now. Throughout my journey so far, I’ve been inspired by many blogs and sites that have incredibly insightful tips and tricks, as well as some interesting dialogue on the philosophy of their craft. For while I thought that I should try this outlet as well.

So a bit about me and my journey: I’m a mathematician from Australia with a passion for probability theory and differential equations. I love maths, I love equations, and I also learned to love code as well. Programming has been an invaluable skill to learn as a mathematician – one I wish I had learned earlier – because it gave me so many tools to do 2 important things: be creative, and be lazy. The less time I spent doing things manually, the more time I could spend thinking about more interesting and advanced things.

Unsurprisingly, this quest with maths became intertwined with the quest with programming. They shared a deep love of solving puzzles, and a seemingly boundless curiosity that gave me a deeper appreciation for the universe around me.

I was formerly an academic, I had started a PhD in 2019 in mathematical neuroscience in England after finishing a MSc in mathematical biology in Australia. I was incredibly lucky to be able to work with talented research groups in Australia and England, but I was often the only programmer on many projects which began an isolation that got significantly worse during pandemic lock-downs while visiting home longer than I had planned. My flight back to England got cancelled, and I had to work on the PhD remotely for many months – not an experience I would recommend!

In the end, I decided to take a break from my PhD and try something new. And so, I ended up as a software engineer and left my PhD. Suddenly I was no longer the only programmer in the room anymore, and I rediscovered why I do what I do:

• I like solving puzzles
• I like working with talented people
• I like learning new tricks
• I like making really hard things into relatively easy things
• I like using my skill-set to help people

So why am I starting a blog? Simply because communication is a skill that needs to be practiced like any other. There’s a lot of blogs that I’ve read that are a step up from the documentation simply because the communication of ideas happens on a different level – and often acknowledges the friction and issues in getting something working. And if you’re lucky, provides insight on how they got it working in an undocumented way, an explanation on why it works, and sometimes even covers why people should (or shouldn’t) use the hacks they’ve written about.

Another really useful output of a blog is that it gives a common place I can forward people to, instead of copying out the same message into another email.

What can we expect to end up on this blog? To be honest, I’m not sure. I haven’t thought too far ahead to avoid the perfectionism that comes with the territory so that I can get more things done. I’m aiming to write a short-ish post between once a week and once a month – but mileage may vary as I figure out this space a bit more! If you’re along for the journey or have similar interests, all I can say is welcome! And thanks for reading.