Writing — essays & other yapping

blogs

my old notes on a personal statement for cambridge

Here are my old notes on writing a personal statement for computer science at cambridge. I thought they might be more useful here. Don't take it as gospel, and you don't have to follow the advice! It's just what I found useful, so pick and choose any useful bits.

my version of "working hard"

Technically I'm “working hard”, long hours learning lots of complex content, busy sleepless days organising and running events, going outside and talking to people. But I have this sneaking suspicion that I haven't been working hard, and I've been making myself so busy I haven't noticed. I'm trying to think back to when I felt like I worked hard, I haven't worked hard in years … I don't think I've ever worked hard actually. That sounds so absurd! Didn't I define what working hard is?

why does art make you cry?

Have you ever cried whilst experiencing art? Be it painting, song, performance or prose. I tried thinking back to the last time I cried to art and gave a null until I remembered art encompasses much more than traditional fine paintings.

listen-able

a brief history of the design of mobile phones

The development of mobile phones has been marked by a general trend of becoming more portable and offering more functionality. In the first wave of HCI, mobile phones were very new and were used exclusively for calling.

the "perfect" community

Building what a community should look like has been a question for all of human civilisation and has morphed into many forms, with different levels of success for the overall happiness of the people.

the supermarket — an unexpected animal

I wrote this as part of a creative writing workshop, where every so often the facilitator interjected with an addition we had to add to the story. A lot of it was adding unexpected events, or twists.