Using Anki for mathematics (simpler is better)

It is not a coincidence that almost every mathematics textbook contains some words to the effect that "mathematics is not a spectator sport" – this seems kind of obvious, but it is something which eluded me for a while. The best way to practice and improve at maths is to do…

Some nice slides on Tarjan's algorithm

I found these very helpful * https://courses.cs.washington.edu/courses/cse417/17wi/slides/Graphs3.pdf * https://www.cs.purdue.edu/homes/jblocki/courses/381_Fall19/slides/Week9.1.pdf (note: the start introduces DFS, the later part explains Tarjan's algorithm) Note: these pages are also captured in the Wayback…

Hindley-Milner type inference

I've recently been writing a compiler in Rust. One part of this is type inference. I've written up some notes (as a kind of "what I wish I'd known" thing), in the hope that it will be of use to someone. The basic problem of type inference is this: we…

BIO 2021 question 1

Note: you can find the question paper on the BIO website Part A This problem can be solved simply using a recursive algorithm: function is_pat(string: String) -> bool if string.len() == 1 then return True else is_pat = False for i=0 to string.len() - 2 do…

Against the term "critical AI"

The term "AI" is one of those words so well-worn by corporate marketing departments that all the meaning has been worn out of it. It has been worn until it has frayed and torn apart and ended up as little more than a term to be picked up and tacked…