Jan 27, 2022Understand Your GuitarA Deep Beginner’s Guide — I picked up a guitar for the first time about a year ago. Here’s how I have made sense of it. Strings A typical guitar has 6 fixed-length strings along its neck. Each string has a different weight from the other strings. The thicker the string, the heavier it is. The…Guitar14 min readGuitar14 min read
Published in Towards Data Science·Dec 5, 2021Believe RationallyHow To Update Your Beliefs Based On Evidence — Do You Have Covid-19? Imagine you took a rapid at-home covid-19 test. If you test positive, how worried should you be? Alternatively, if you test negative, how safe should you feel? This article will arm you with the knowledge and the tools to correctly and easily evaluate such evidence and update your confidence in…Probability9 min readProbability9 min read
Published in Towards Data Science·Oct 2, 2021Make Good DecisionsMy daughter, who’s in middle school, recently bought her first new phone. She used her hard-earned money from a lucrative summer of neighborhood jobs (dog-walking, cat-sitting, plants-watering, babysitting). On the day of picking up her phone, she had a decision to make. …Probability8 min readProbability8 min read
Aug 25, 2021I’m Not Frightened Of Dying“I’m not frightened of dying, Any time will do, I don’t mind Why should I be frightened of dying? There’s no reason for it, you’ve gotta go sometime” — The Great Gig In The Sky, Pink Floyd I too was not afraid of death, when I was younger. Back when…Philosophy4 min readPhilosophy4 min read
Published in Cantor’s Paradise·Jul 15, 2021Chaos WrangledA Simple Introduction To Chaotic Systems — Have you heard of the butterfly effect? In one of its many versions it stipulates, somewhat facetiously, that a butterfly flapping its wings in New Mexico could cause a hurricane in China. The serious underlying point is that small changes in the atmospheric conditions that determine weather phenomena can cause…Mathematics6 min readMathematics6 min read
Published in Towards Data Science·Apr 6, 2021Where’s Waldo?Search Algorithms In The Physical World — Imagine you want to read (or re-read) your copy of Infinite Jest. You have thousands of books arrayed across bookcases around your house. How would you find that particular book? Brute-force You could walk around the house scanning each and every book on each and every shelf until you find Infinite…Computer Science9 min readComputer Science9 min read
Published in Towards Data Science·Mar 17, 2021Your Friends Have More Friends Than YouA friendly introduction to the Friendship Paradox — An Unfriendly Truth Your friends most likely have more friends than you do. You may find this humbling, hurtful, improbable, impossible, or simply quaint. But it’s the truth. What exactly does it mean for your friends to have more friends than you? Suppose you have N friends. And your first friend has F₁…Mathematics9 min readMathematics9 min read
Published in Towards Data Science·Feb 2, 2021A Better Way To VoteA Markovian Method To Quantify Collective Preferences From Individuals’ Ranked Choices — What’s For Dinner? The other day my family of four had to make a critical decision: what to get for dinner. The options on the table were sushi, fried chicken, Indian, or pizza. We could have done what we’d always done before: each person votes for their top choice and the option with…Mathematics13 min readMathematics13 min read
Published in Cantor’s Paradise·Jan 22, 2021A Layperson’s Guide To Quantum EffectsYou expect the physical world around you to behave a certain way. If you knock a glass off the table, it will fall to the floor and likely shatter. How do you know this? Primarily from everyday experience, which your brain distills into your intuition. Once you’ve seen enough things…Quantum Physics12 min readQuantum Physics12 min read
Published in Towards Data Science·Dec 21, 2020Erasure Coding For The MassesMore Math, Less Money To Keep Your Data Safe — You have precious data. Be it videos of your baby’s first steps or documents you’ve scanned for a paperless life or information you store for users of your startup product. You want to keep this data safe, of course. Safe from permanent loss, temporary unavailability, and unauthorized access. A typical…Mathematics15 min readMathematics15 min read
