A year of brilliance!

Today, 27 September 2014, I celebrate a year of membership in Brilliant. I've really learnt so much in the course of these 365 days. I really wanna thank Brilliant so much. And I'd like to share my story on Brilliant.

When I first joined Brilliant on that fateful day 27 September 2013, I was a noob. I mean REALLY noob. So at that time, Brilliant was still holding 1-week challenges, and had only 4 topics. Now, I would probably call that a rigid structure. But anyway, I learnt to enjoy the problems on Brilliant. They helped me rekindle my passion for math. But still, I solved them pretty easily. I craved more. More. More. By then Brilliant got a little... boring. I needed more math. More problems. MORE!!!!!!

And then, suddenly, Brilliant exploded. Exploded. The feed had changed completely, with so many new topics, new problems... It was just what I needed. Brilliant had finally evolved into a beautiful, bustling, gigantic, vibrant community. I met so many motivational people on Brilliant, like Finn Hulse and Sharky Kesa and so many other talented, amazing people. And all the time Brilliant was going viral. I managed to get people hooked on Brilliant too, like ZhiJie Goh, Luke Tan, Ng Yi Pen and others.

One day, I decided to try create my own problems. And then it got really fun. I thought of so many wild and fantastical ideas (but of course posted only the legit ones :D), and I didn't even tire. I was enjoying it.

All the time, my passion for math grew and grew, and my streak grew and grew. And Brilliant's community grew and grew. Brilliant, such a colourful, incredible, enjoyable community.

Of course, I had quite a few "close shaves" in the wrong sense. If Calvin Lin had stayed in Raffles Institution for maybe an hour longer, I would probably have met him. (lol :D)

I know my $229- \text{day}$ streak's dead, but that doesn't mean my passion is dead. I know, compared to people like Trevor Arashiro, Finn Hulse, Sharky Kesa, and Victor Loh, I am really still quite a noob on Brilliant.

But the problems have taught me perseverance and resilience.

The streak has taught me determination.

Its connectivity has taught me communication.

The feed has taught me how to present my problems, solutions and even allowed me to think from the perspective of the problem-setter to let me better solve harder questions.

So overall, despite my lowly status on Brilliant, I have really learnt so much from Brilliant, and these life lessons are what I find the most valuable. I'm not even a moderator. But at least, I enjoy Brilliant. I truly appreciate Brilliant. These life lessons are what let me know my time on Brilliant is worthwhile.

And so my story ends here. I know so many more people on Brilliant share this same story and, like me, have really benefitted so much from Brilliant.

So on behalf of all these grateful people, I'd like to say," Thanks so much, Brilliant." And I know that there'll always be new things here for me to explore, new problems to learn from, and I know Brilliant is going to expand and widen to eventually become one of the best sites in the world. Because Brilliant is truly -- Brilliant.

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print "hello world"

Math

Appears as

Remember to wrap math in $ ... $ or \[ ... \] to ensure proper formatting.

2 \times 3

2 \times 3

2^{34}

2^{34}

a_{i-1}

a_{i-1}

\frac{2}{3}

\frac{2}{3}

\sqrt{2}

\sqrt{2}

\sum_{i=1}^3

\sum_{i=1}^3

\sin \theta

\sin \theta

\boxed{123}

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Easy Math Editor

This discussion board is a place to discuss our Daily Challenges and the math and science related to those challenges. Explanations are more than just a solution — they should explain the steps and thinking strategies that you used to obtain the solution. Comments should further the discussion of math and science.

When posting on Brilliant:

Use the emojis to react to an explanation, whether you're congratulating a job well done , or just really confused .
Ask specific questions about the challenge or the steps in somebody's explanation. Well-posed questions can add a lot to the discussion, but posting "I don't understand!" doesn't help anyone.
Try to contribute something new to the discussion, whether it is an extension, generalization or other idea related to the challenge.
Stay on topic — we're all here to learn more about math and science, not to hear about your favorite get-rich-quick scheme or current world events.

Markdown	Appears as
`italics` or `_italics_`	italics
`bold` or `__bold__`	bold
- bulleted - list	bulleted list
1. numbered 2. list	numbered list
Note: you must add a full line of space before and after lists for them to show up correctly
paragraph 1 paragraph 2	paragraph 1 paragraph 2
`[example link](https://brilliant.org)`	example link
`> This is a quote`	This is a quote
# I indented these lines # 4 spaces, and now they show # up as a code block. print "hello world"	# I indented these lines # 4 spaces, and now they show # up as a code block. print "hello world"

Math	Appears as
Remember to wrap math in `$` ... `$` or `\[` ... `\]` to ensure proper formatting.
`2 \times 3`	$2 \times 3$
`2^{34}`	$2^{34}$
`a_{i-1}`	$a_{i-1}$
`\frac{2}{3}`	$\frac{2}{3}$
`\sqrt{2}`	$\sqrt{2}$
`\sum_{i=1}^3`	$\sum_{i=1}^3$
`\sin \theta`	$\sin \theta$
`\boxed{123}`	$\boxed{123}$

Comments

Well just look at you! Calling yourself a "noob" on Brilliant when you have Level 5 in Algebra, Geometry, NUMBER THEORY, and level 4 in Combinatorics and Computer Science?? Boy, you're as much a noob as $1+1=3$ .

Now drop the noobfulness, and get cracking! The streak ain't gonna build itself, ya'know?

John M. - 6 years, 8 months ago

Thanks! :P

Yuxuan Seah - 6 years, 8 months ago

Special thanks to all these awesome people -- :D

@Victor Loh -- for your true awesomeness. And for being my true friend for so long :)

@Suyeon Khim -- for creating Brilliant, the website I love so much

@Calvin Lin -- for creating Brilliant too :D

@Finn Hulse -- for being a real genius and one of the nicest people I've met on Brilliant :D :D :D

@Sharky Kesa -- same as Finn (lol :D)

@ZhiJie Goh -- for allowing me to hook you on Brilliant XD and for your awesomeness too. :)

@Luke Tan -- for allowing me to hook you onto Brilliant :D

@Ng Yi Pen -- for being awesome and for allowing me to hook you onto Brilliant too :)

And so many others! To all of you guys, THANKS SO MUCH! :D :D :D

Awww, thanks. I recently had my year on Brilliant complete as well. September 21 (or thereabouts), 2013, I found Brilliant

Sharky Kesa - 6 years, 8 months ago

Oh, and special mention to these people too -- :D :D :D

@Charlton Teo @Joel Tan @Joshua Ong @Jowell Ling @Fengyu Seah @Michael Lee @TJ Ng

And these people too lol :D

@Ruiqi Li @Cedric Tan @Teng Chou Nathan Mar @Jianzhi Wang @Wang Chunzhe @samuel squigi @Astro Enthusiast @Mardokay Mosazghi @Martin Ong

@Yuxuan Seah – ha ha thanks but i am also a noob the real studying real math starts now for me, thanks for mentioning me. I was inspired by you guys @Yuxuan Seah

Mardokay Mosazghi - 6 years, 8 months ago

@Mardokay Mosazghi – i am also noobies lol

math man - 6 years, 8 months ago

Thanks dear :)

Fengyu Seah - 6 years, 8 months ago

Aww, thank you so much! :D

Finn Hulse - 6 years, 8 months ago

You've gotten it totally reversed. Compared to you, I'm the noob XD. And I love your problems, they're unique and always very original.

Trevor Arashiro - 6 years, 8 months ago

Aww thanks :D

Thanks :)

Victor Loh - 6 years, 8 months ago

Thanks for your encouragement. I'm glad that newsfeed fed your hunger for more problems, and that you also enjoyed creating problems to contribute to the community. We have just started the Brilliant Wiki, and would appreciate your support by creating and editing articles, so that others can learn from you.

Oh, I was in RI for most of the day. Mrs Soh had to teach her class, so I met her for the 30 minutes before that. Then I met up with Miss Tang Keen Yeen, and we were sitting at the tables outside the staffroom (above the atrium) for quite a while. Then we went off for lunch at Crystal Jade.

It was a last minute trip back to Singapore for me, and I was quite rushed. I gave several lessons at SIMO, so you could have caught me there. The next time I'm back, I will try and organize something broader.

Calvin Lin Staff - 6 years, 8 months ago

@Calvin Lin the Brilliant wiki is really great! It would really offer some help to others who need it. :D I've written a few pages already lol

Argh too bad I didn't get in SIMO... :( I'll try though :D

I do really wanna meet you someday :)

Haha I want to too.

Joshua Ong - 6 years, 8 months ago

Nice!! Thanks for getting me hooked onto Brilliant :P

ZhiJie Goh - 6 years, 8 months ago

How u find brilliant ??

Manoj Kumar - 6 years, 8 months ago

Math	Appears as
Remember to wrap math in `\(` ... `\)` or `\[` ... `\]` to ensure proper formatting.
`2 \times 3`	$2 \times 3$
`2^{34}`	$2^{34}$
`a_{i-1}`	$a_{i-1}$
`\frac{2}{3}`	$\frac{2}{3}$
`\sqrt{2}`	$\sqrt{2}$
`\sum_{i=1}^3`	$\sum_{i=1}^3$
`\sin \theta`	$\sin \theta$
`\boxed{123}`	$\boxed{123}$