Tarun Nair

Hi! I’m a third-going-on-fourth-year university maths student, so naturally I’m allergic to touching grass. I envision this blog containing both the sort of maths I’m interested in, and the non-maths stuff I like so you’ll be assured that I’m not (just) a theorem-proving automaton.

What I’ve recently listened to consumed:

• Playing Dark Souls 2. I’ve a Strength build, and I’ve reached the Shrine of Amana and will probably stay there for the foreseeable future. I started off being warned against the game by my friends, and – you know the drill – I’ve ended up finding it… palatable.
• Reading The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann, as namedropped in Murakami’s Norwegian Wood. Hans Castorp is a young man destined to work in shipbuilding (or something adjacent) but he pays a visit to his cousin at a sanatorium – and ends up being taken in as a patient. So far there’s been some interesting discussions of the passage of time, but the highlight of the book so far has been Castorp’s interactions with the other patients, most notably his love interest Mme Chauchat. I’m not sure what Mann is building up to with Chauchat but the fragments of characterisation we have got suggest she doesn’t necessarily reciprocate.
• Watching the videos of Julian de Medeiros, as recommended by Ash Callaghan (“men’s fashion for beginners”). He does “unserious” videos on philosophy, particularly Žižekian, as applied to the issues of our times: AI chatbots, porn use, whatever Gen Alpha’s doing etc.
• Watching my county Surrey go from Div 1 runners-up last year to (as of writing) seventh this year, eighth at one point, with seven draws (!) and four losses, including two to Glamorgan (!!). At least we’re ahead of Essex.
• Not much music except random pieces on Radio 3.