Back in secondary school, I used to look forward to solving maths puzzles on my laptop after dinner.
It was like that almost every day, for at least a period of two years. I am not exactly sure how I came across the site Brilliant.org back in 2018/19, perhaps it was one of my classmates that introduced me to it.
I was around 15 then, still on my way to completing secondary school before doing my A-levels in the UK.
Brilliant used to do these daily challenges and would release them at 6 or 7 pm Hong Kong time. There was a discussion panel under the puzzle and you’d be able to contribute your solution if you got the right answer.
Initially I was still learning and improving my mathematical prowess. And before long, I became good at solving those daily challenges that I’d compete against others for the most-upvoted solutions.
Those were the days of pure joy and bliss. I took the time to fire up the neurones inside my cranium, forging new synapses with every maths puzzle I solved.
I solved the puzzles for the sake of solving. There was no ulterior motive, no career plan.
So trust me, I absolutely understand what goes on the brains of the readers that enjoy reading this blog. I know from first-hand experience what it feels like to ponder hard about a problem, and then arrive at the solution.
I have been there, done that. More than 6,000 times.
Change is the only constant, they say. The world changes. So do the people inhabiting inside of it.
So have I. I am 23 now. Over the past 7 years, so much has happened in my life. I have grown up. I have experienced the ups and downs, the highs and lows, the triumphant and the catastrophic.
I have tasted the forbidden fruit, I have had proper crazy shit happen to me and come out on the other side.
I have truly lived, and thoroughly experienced the world outside of numbers and equations.
I don’t live for mathematics. I live for my life. Mathematics has become one the many lens through which I can appreciate the world.
Not only that, it’s become part of my livelihood. Can you imagine being able to afford nutrient dense ruminant red meats from the likes of cattle and sheep by typing man-made words about man-made maths puzzles on a man-made laptop?
Ha! My ancestors would be scratching their heads right now.
I am grateful for being gifted this unique intellect by the infinite causal chains of the Universe. I am able to do what I do thanks to myriad of factors and happenstance that go way way back, of which I have no control.
For now, there’s an extremely high opportunity cost for me to sit there and solve a maths puzzle for the sake of doing so.
I could be doing a million other things that directly improve my experience, or I could be writing a post about said puzzle, in an attempt to hit the algorithmic jackpot.
If there’s one thing I can take away from my blogging experience, it would be that it’s never too late to enjoy mathematics. I can still do it in my time during retirement, just like many of my readers are doing.
I must build a life for the future, but also live in the present moment, right here, right now.
Mathematics and maths puzzles are timeless. Our bodies and youth are not. So if you happen to be a young person reading this, please just take a break from the complicated maths you are studying and venture out into the incredible wilderness in this reality.
And when you are done doing all that, come back to maths in say 40 years time.
You won’t regret it, I promise.
Barry
