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Russell is someone who takes great responsibility for, and is committed to, his own learning. He participated in the Physics Olympiads, representing both school and country, where he was taught advanced physics but was required to complete a great deal of the learning on his own. His achievements, a Bronze in the Singapore Physics Olympiad and participating in the Asian Physics Olympiad, demonstrate that he is able to structure his learning and meet rigorous academic demands with minimal supervision. It also shows that Russell is an intellectually curious person who does not confine his learning to the classroom or to the mundane demands of the syllabus, this being true even for subjects other than Physics. Russell frequently does his extracurricular reading on Wikipedia, where he can find information on every topic under the sun. It was on Wikipedia, for example, that Russell read about Cantor’s diagonal argument, appreciating the ingenuity of its construction. Frequently, Russell is not able to grasp everything he comes across but he is not intimidated by this. Rather, the endless possibilities of learning, thinking, and discovering new ideas is what excites him and motivates him to read further.

Another characteristic of Russell is that he believes very much in thinking for himself, being cautious of accepting anything unquestioningly. He was influenced in this respect partly by reading about science and its history and partly by watching the film Dead Poets Society.

In science, ideas are never taken for granted (if they were, Einstein would never have rejected Newton’s laws in favour of his own relativity). Russell found the constant reinvention of science throughout history to be remarkable and it inspired him to put his faith in scientific thinking. That is, of searching for truth, of constant thinking, of never deceiving oneself (Feynman) and of appreciating the wondrous beauty of nature and of physical law.
In Dead Poets Society, Mr. Keating urges his students never to take authority for granted, instead exhorting them to seize the day and never to ‘live lives of quiet desperation’ (Thoreau). Watching this inspiring film led Russell to explore some of Thoreau’s writings, such as Walden, which he found hopelessly quixotic but felt the message of self exploration and introspection was a good one to live by.