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Like, I suspect, many people, I have never knowingly come across an isosceles triangle in my life, and wouldn’t know what to do with it if I did. However...

Review: Once upon a prime

January 3, 2024

As someone who had little in the way of mathematical prowess at school, I initially opened Prime with some trepidation.

DALL·E 2023-04-20 12.58.36 - A girl using a calculator in the style of Roy Litchtenstein

This doesn't add up: the Prime Minister's fretting about numeracy skills and people's attitudes towards them

April 20, 2023

Forgive me while I go off the subject of computing etc, but I feel I have to comment on the British Prime Minister’s recent headline-making pronouncement that kids need to be taught maths until they are 18 years old, and that they should ashamed of not being numerate.

What I've been reading: Weapons of Math Destruction

September 5, 2017

What's worse than being governed by algorithms? Not even knowing what the algorithm is doing. This very timely and readable book lifts the lid of what goes on in many walks of life.

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I have somewhat dichotomous views of this question of whether leaders make a difference, or much of a difference. I think my views can be classified as macro and micro.