On things other than / tangential to maths

• From Immigrant to Inventor - Mihajlo Pupin

  An autobiography about a physicist who emigrated from a small Serbian village to the US. Having won a Pulitzer Prize in 1924, its relevance still shines a century later. It’s comically hair-raising how some aspects of academia haven’t changed at all.

• A Brighter Summer Day

  

• Third Easter in Oxford

  

• Perfect Days

  

• Eighth Term at Oxford

  

• Third Christmas in Oxford

  

• Stock Game

  

  Trade stocks and make money! A javascript / much superior version to a game I made 7 years ago. Fond memories.

• The Creative Act - Rick Rubin

  An exceptionally inspiring book by Rick Rubin. Here are some quotes I’ve found particularly inspiring.

• Font sizes from 4px to 99.9px

  Discuss on Hacker News

• Running a mathematics society in secondary school

  Having been in charge of a mathematics society at secondary school, here are some of my thoughts on the role of a mathematics society.

• Seventh Term at Oxford

  

• Second Summer in Oxford

  

• Networking to network - Phil Agre

  Recently came across an article by Phil Agre on the significance, process and morality of networking in an academic setting. I’ve found it to be substantial, convincing and helpful. Here’s some quotes I found particularly inspiring.

• Calculator Programming

  Years ago when I was still in secondary school, mobile phones were not that popular yet and as such I was obsessed with programming my fx-50FHII which was the only mobile computing platform I had. I ended up trying to write up an introductory course on calculator programming. Fun times. Here’s the [pdf].

• Second Year at Oxford

  

• Second Easter in Oxford

  

• I Want to be a Mathematician - Paul Halmos

  A book written by Paul Halmos, I’ve very much enjoyed it and have found the following quotes particularly inspiring.

• Opportunities learning maths beyond the syllabus in HK

  Hong Kong is filled with institutions that one can utilize to advance your learning in mathematics. I’m going to share a list of opportunities pursuing mathematics that I’m aware of.

• Fifth Term at Oxford

  

• The Art of Doing Science and Engineering - Richard Hamming

  A book written by Richard W. Hamming, it has slowly became one of my favourite books of all time. I would mention a few snippets I’ve found particularly inspiring.

• On Stun-locks

  Very often, I get stunned by something unexpected and feeling unable to do anything about it. The solution is often a healthier mindset.

• Effort vs Quality

  Across a wide range of technologies, there’s increasingly this tension between effort and quality. We want to minimize user effort and maximize quality of output, yet are we taking that too far?

• Second Christmas in Oxford

  

• DIY Pin Board of Tools and More

  Recently I’ve been trying to make my room feel like home without resorting to consumerism and with function in mind. Here are some results.

• Technical aspects of tobylam.xyz

  Below is a document of the technologies this website uses. It's mostly for myself but also for anyone curious on making their own websites.

• Fourth Term at Oxford

  

• Tackling Oxford Mathematics Interviews (Undergraduate)

  Oxford Mathematics Interviews may feel daunting. Beyond the basic format of the interviews, here are some of my advice on tackling them.

• First Summer in Oxford

  

• Making a mathematics personal statement personal

  The personal statement needs to be more personal than the facts that you know. How can one make facts "personal"?

• Audience and Tone of tobylam.xyz

  Having maintained this website for over 2 years, I’d like to mention some of my thoughts on tobylam.xyz and where I would like to take it in the future.

• Inspirations for tobylam.xyz

  It has been two years since my first post and I’d like to share some of my thoughts on what made this blog a reality, and my thoughts on the direction of this blog. After all, the inspirations for this website heavily affect the direction I would like to take it.

• First Year at Oxford

  

• Second Term at Oxford

  

• First Term at Oxford

  

• Tackling the Oxford MAT

  Some advice for the Oxford Maths Admissions Test

• Choosing a college at Oxford (Undergraduate)

  While the official advice is mostly solid, it shies away from discussing the more serious disparities between colleges.

• Applying to Oxford Mathematics (Undergraduate)

  

• Using Zoom / Google Meet with OBS

  Setting up a virtual webcam with OBS and Skype's built-in background filtering

• Why start a website?

  There are a few reasons why I am starting this website/blog.

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