About

If I have a standout feature, that must be curiosity. Add to the mix my lack of practical skills and you get what a high school colleague and friend called me: an information sponge.

I admire people who know stuff, but for me, information is mainly a fluid. Discussions make me enthusiastic, and so do the situations when I find or create connections between topics, because I feel information flowing between them.

I became a teacher for the same reason: the joy of information exchange, and the curiosity of receiving reactions, comments, and questions — basically, the thrill of a dialogue.

In January 2024, I published my first essay in a Romanian culture magazine, which was my first attempt to start a public dialogue. I don’t believe that magazines, blogs, or newsletters could replace a true discussion, but thanks to the Internet, they provide yet another way of attempting to start a conversation.

Hence the initiative for this publication: a way of trafficking information.

I’m a mathematician and a teacher, chiefly interested in the history and philosophy of science, technology, science education using modern tools (both hardware and software, games, and virtual experiences), so you should expect many of the features here to have such focuses.

At the same time, I’m passioned about topics that may not fit popular magazines, so I wanted to have my own corner to write about those. The books I’ve read, the games I’ve discovered and played, the music that I listened to or that quirky idea which may fit some fiction story or maybe it’s just nonsense.

You should expect texts on artificial intelligence, but also Babylonian or Chinese mathematics; on my favorite writers and their technique; on the mathematics of Meshuggah’s rhythm section or Pythagoras’ music and Euclidean rhythms.

Finally, since I’ve been working with high school and college students for more than fifteen years, both in the private and public sector, you bet I’ve things to say or ideas to bounce on topics such as STEM education or some chapters in the curriculum.

The title I’ve given, The Gradient, shows a kind of spectrum, which illustrates this planned fluidity. It should also signal a direction. But I’m not sure that will be the case (nor if I want it to). However, I’m curious and anxious to start this dialogue.

I believe in information accessible as widely as possible, so I make my promise for openness. I don’t want to monetize the ideas or time I use for the essays that I’ll publish here, but the technological aspect (among which maintenance and hosting for this page) is not free.

Therefore, I set up an optional subscription and send my gratitude to all the participants through reading, commenting, sharing, subscribing or paying a one-time contribution.