Even if you hate it. Even if you flunked it in high school.
QC Voices 15
Number Flavors Part IV: The Complexes
A professor of mine once marveled at how nonintuitive the real numbers are. If you were going to pick a set of numbers to do math with, would you have made sure to include the square root of 17?
His casual comment points to something essential about numbers, something that every mathematician knows but that no one seems to talk about.
How to Check Your Privilege
With tears streaming down her face, she kissed my cheek, and in that moment I knew my childhood was over. It was the epitome of a bittersweet moment; from this woman’s suffering, my future flashed before my eyes. Her tears expressed joy and thanks, but hidden behind her brown irises and dark pupils I could […]
A Pocket Puzzle
You’re sitting on the subway. Your phone has low battery, and you have nothing to read. How do you kill time?
I like to carry around a puzzle with me. Not a physical puzzle, like a jigsaw or a Rubik’s cube. A mental puzzle – something to think about for fun.
Follow Up on “To Her Rapist”
Growing up, I remember being taught to fear “the other” men: the stranger, the crazy bum on the street, the random alcoholic, the violent uncontrollable man who might rape me. But what are the statistics on rape? So why are us women taught to fear men we don’t know when the danger is men we do […]
Is Artificial Intelligence a Threat?
I love movies, books, and video games about smart robots: friendly, murderous, misunderstood, or loving robots. But here’s the thing: artificial intelligence is real.
To Her Rapist
Brock*, You’ll want to read this by yourself, somewhere no one can read from your shoulder: not for her sake, but for yours. If you had to describe to someone who she is to you, what would you say? If you had to tell someone how long you’ve known her, what would you say? If […]
What “Solving” Means
To Pisa!
Samantha and I took the train for the first time on Sunday: our destination was Pisa. We had no difficulty buying tickets at the automated machines, and just as our friend recounted in her traveling story, the machine loudly warned us in English of pickpockets and to ask only station staff for information. We had […]
Accio Firebolt or Google?
If you had the opportunity to live in a world with Harry Potter magic, but no computers, what would you do?
