AntoniusBlock's comments

Slightly offtopic, but there are other Fields Medalists on youtube too, such as Richard E Borcherds. He has some very nice videos on number theory and abstract algebra.

https://www.youtube.com/@richarde.borcherds7998

>It was certainly the thing which made it click for me.

Stockhausen's Oktophonie did the trick for me.

I've been hearing American accents more and more in London over the past few years, especially over the past few months, so this lines up with my experiences.

CTFs are a fun way to get started. Here are some that I like: Pwn.college, PicoCTF, and PortSwigger WebAcademy.

Anything by David Attenborough should do the trick.

A more rigourous approach was tried after WW2, when Americans feared the Soviets were edging ahead mathematically/scientifically. It was called "New Math" [0]. For an example of the type of textbook high school students were taught from, check out Dolciani's Modern Introductory Analysis (the 1960s and 1970s editions only; the later editions were dumbed down, especially when Dolciani died) [1], which starts with set theory, logic, field axioms, and proof writing techniques.

[0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Math

[1] - https://archive.org/details/modernintroducto00dolc

The OU maths books are indeed very good. This is the way to go.

>The only thing that US bases in the EU are doing at the moment is contributing to the local economies.

Some US bases double as spy bases. For example in the UK, RAF Menwith Hill is an NSA spy base, and RAF Croughton is a CIA spy base. One bargaining chip Europe has is to oust these spy bases from their territory. This would obviously negatively impact the US' global intelligence efforts. In any case, I see little point in allowing a hostile nation have spy bases on one's land.

RIP. My favourite Spassky game is this 24 move win against Petrosian and Petrosian was no patzer: https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1106864

Most big cities in the UK have great clubs for all sorts of hobbies, and clubs are a great way to make friends. Do you like sports? Do you drink alcohol? Just wondering because pub culture is big here and it's an easy way to make friends.

Reposting some advice I gave to someone on HN a few weeks ago:

Here's some advice I've been given by maths professors that I've put into practise. This stuff really works.

-- Make sure you can do it cold, as in make sure you can do things without looking at notes, or looking at wherever you learned it from. For example, say I give you a calculus problem, you should be able to solve it without any outside help, just you, some paper and a pen. No notes, no Google, nothing else. If you can't, then you need to study more and do more problems.

-- Build a routine. Make sure you study whatever it is you want to study every day at the same time and you'll find yourself wanting to do it after a habit is built. And if you miss a session, for whatever reason, you'll feel quite bad about it, and want to try extra hard in the next session because you know you're "behind schedule".

-- Actively recall whatever you've learnt. You can do this by quizzing yourself (make your own problem sets, or do problem sets made by others), and by using flashcards/anki for the things you have trouble memorising. This is one of the best ways to retain info.

-- Don't stress or get angry. You'll just stop the learning process. If you find yourself stressed, or angry, take a break. Remain calm, happy and curious.

You can do it. I believe in you. Start today.

This is a great resource for self-learning mathematics: https://www.susanrigetti.com/math

I stopped using IMDB after they removed their message boards. What a strange move that was.

This is going to sound bad but another upside to charity shops is that often they misprice their books, so you can get some real bargains.

I just looked at my backlog book and apparently I did read the first half of LLPSI 2. I don't recall much from it though. I think after a certain point in the book, I found it too difficult straight after LLPSI 1, which is why.

I went straight into Hyginus and Caesar. Hyginus is not difficult at all. After LLPSI, you should be able to read this: https://www.thelatinlibrary.com/hyginus/hyginus5.shtml

Caesar is not too difficult either. The biggest problem I had with Caesar was that he used indirect speech a lot and LLPSI doesn't really prepare you too well for that, but you get used to it.

I started with LLPSI along with Oerberg's companion books (Colloquia Personarum, Fabellae Latinae, Fabulae Syrae). After that I read Hyginus' Fabulae and then Commentarii de Bello Gallico by Caesar. Since then I've read more Caesar, Nepos, Apuleius, Seneca, some Livy, some Catullus, some Cicero, and I'm currently reading Ovid. I did this by reading Latin for at least 1 hour every day since the first COVID lockdown in 2020, even if I was sick or not feeling it I made sure to get my Latin reading in. I did do a lot of grammar drills in the beginning, and I made an Anki deck for vocab. Grammar drills definitely help big time, along with jumping in head first with a book like LLPSI and reading from the get go is the way to go IMO.

Here's some advice I've been given by maths professors that I've put into practise. This stuff really works.

-- Make sure you can do it cold, as in make sure you can do things without looking at notes, or looking at wherever you learned it from. For example, say I give you a calculus problem, you should be able to solve it without any outside help, just you, some paper and a pen. No notes, no Google, nothing else. If you can't, then you need to study more and do more problems.

-- Build a routine. Make sure you study whatever it is you want to study every day at the same time and you'll find yourself wanting to do it after a habit is built. And if you miss a session, for whatever reason, you'll feel quite bad about it, and want to try extra hard in the next session because you know you're "behind schedule".

-- Actively recall whatever you've learnt. You can do this by quizzing yourself, or by using flashcards/anki. This is one of the best ways to retain info.

-- Don't stress or get angry. You'll just stop the learning process. If you find yourself stressed, or angry, take a break. Remain calm, happy and curious.

You can do it. I believe in you. Start today.

No Gaddis? What a shame. Everyone ITT should check out Gaddis' `The Recognitions' and `J.R.' (and his other books, of course).

Run a honeypot and see where most of the traffic comes from.