During a chemistry lecture I was told a simple little piece of information. This, of course, kicked off weeks of thinking about triangles, as well as how I, other individuals, communities and cultures learn.

In solving a Project Euler puzzle I found out about binomial coefficients. Years later my kid spent a sick-day on the couch binging TV and in joining in, ostensibly to take care of him, my mind wandered off a bit.

I stumbled into what might be some combinatorial esoterica and I can't stop thinking about it. Additionally, a book organising app told me I have a bunch of badgers in my house. I need to sort them out.

Lately I've been thinking about really fun solutions. You know, those solutions which use some insight you were completely unaware of and make it all look like magic. With the help of a classic Australian thriller novel, a dice game from early modern Britain, and Beethoven, I'll explore some foundations of an area of mathematics called combinatorics.