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The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity, Carlo M. Cipolla
This was something that we discussed at AlgoAsylum. Depressingly accurate!
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Blood of Elves, Andrzej Sapkowski
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The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup: My Encounters with Extraordinary People, Susan Orlean
The author is (was?) a writer for The New Yorker, and I picked this up more for studying her style of writing. Consider crafting statements such as this: She has an apartment in Paris and a house in Beverly Hills, a room key in Manhattan, the story of Hollywood of the late sixties and seventies…
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This Happened…
“A (Slightly) Improved Approximation Algorithm for Metric TSP,” Anna R. Karlin, Nathan Klein and Shayan Oveis Gharan presents a 3/2 – $epsilon$ approximation algorithm, breaking the previous record of 3/2 by $epsilon gt 10^{-36}$ Here’s an article about this.
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Blink Detection using Python
Check it out! Article published on Medium by ‘The Fellowship of the Blink’ Neha, Kanchan, Kimaya, Samruddhi, and Shrirang! A very interesting contrast to writing a conference or journal paper, and kudos to the team for their effort and perseverance!
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Whatever Arises, Love That: Matt Kahn
I came across an amazing quote from this book, so picked it up. However, I’m putting it down after a couple of chapters. There was no coherent framework or logic, and what I read just came across as a series of disconnected platitudes. I suppose in a couple of hundred pages, one would accidentally come…
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Desiderata, Max Ehrmann
An old favorite: Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story.…
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AlgoAsylum Interns 2020-21
Looking forward to changing the world with a fantastic group of interns: Abhishek Deshpande, Raghav Gaggar, Yash Damania, Yash Chaudhari, Siddharth Srivastava, Samik Pal, Ruchi Pendse, Purva Bhalekar, Janhavi Sathe, Tahiti Dey, Shambhavi Deshpande, Shruti Dixit, Pallavi Raut, and Soham Joshi And excited to be collaborating with (and learning from) Varad Deshmukh once again. We’re working on applications (dyslexia detection, satellite image analysis, pollution monitoring, pandemic modeling, and vehicle modeling)…
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Sword of Destiny, Andrzej Sapkowski
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Stories of Your Life and Others, Ted Chiang
I took an extremely long time to read this book, savoring each story for its originality and philosophy. And for the superlative writing. Arrival (the movie) is based on The Story of Your Life. I watched this as well as Tales from the Loop, which may very well have been based on Ted Chiang’s writing. …
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Personal Philosophy?
From a strictly non-religious perspective: Do all the good you can, By all the means you can, In all the ways you can, In all the places you can, At all the times you can, To all the people you can, As long as ever you can. — John Wesley
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Bad Money – Inside the NPA Mess and How It Threatens the Indian Banking System, Vivek Kaul
This book makes my blood boil. I’ve been pretty mad at the amount of money the government spends on propping up white dinosaurs like Air India. It’s our money – the citizen’s and the taxpayer’s money. And it represents a lost opportunity, where that could have solved many other problems that need funding. The scale…
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The Last Wish: Introducing the Witcher, Andrzej Sapkowski
I had to read this series to make sense of the Netflix series! Nothing much else to say – masala entertainment.
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The Intelligent Investor, Benjamin Graham, Jason Zweig
I first read this book in the early 2000s, and I think I missed the point completely! The intelligence pointed to is not in selecting the right investments, but in the emotional intelligence needed, and the maturity required for avoiding the wrong ones. The core message is more defensive in nature (don’t lose money!). Unfortunately,…
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Grass, Sheri S. Tepper
I don’t remember where I saw a recommendation for this book and it had been on my virtual pile for quite a while, so I had no preconception of what to expect. It started off slow, and I was having second thoughts about continuing, but man, it picked up steam. What a ride (no pun…
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Atomic Habits, James Clear
I subscribe to the author’s 3-2-1 mailing list (it’s brilliant!) and on that basis, I had high hopes for this book. However, I guess I’ve read too many of this genre, and am too jaded… Take a look, it may be right for you!
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The Current Education System is Dead
I don’t think this article will tread new ground, but its an attempt at organizing my thoughts. Observe events of the past few months. We have been forced to go from classroom lectures to online classes – video recordings of lecturers speaking about their topics. If we have a hypothetical college in Pune with ~400…
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Leonhard Euler: Mathematical Genius in the Enlightenment, Ronald S. Calinger
I didn’t realize how little I know about Euler until I read this book. I had a hazy awareness of him as one of the great mathematicians (along with Gauss) and knew he had worked on number theory, was related to imaginary numbers, of course, the Konigsberg Bridge problem, Euler’s identity and my favorite number,…
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The Weil Conjectures, Karen Olsson
I’m not sure what to make of this book. In terms of history and the individuals involved, it’s pretty depressing. In terms of mathematics, there isn’t much. There was the thrill of connection when the Japanese mathematicians Taniyama and Shimura (of the Taniyama-Shimura conjecture) pop up — this was crucial in Andrew Wiles’ proof of…
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Identifying/Creating the Right Opportunity
What would you prefer: Apply to any and all openings, and be forced to ‘accept’ the first offer that you get, or Identify the right place for you, and proactively create your opportunities therein? How can you go about getting the ‘right’ internship? It depends on what ‘right’ is — so the first thing to…