two sigma summer internships got virtualized which i know some people are upset about, but honestly i’m pretty happy with this because now i get more flexible work hours and can potentially live wherever instead of in their intern housing 🙂 and i was fairly worried an in-person internship surrounded by finance people would convince me to do finance full-time after college but now the risk of this happening seems much lower. franklyn tells me i’m making finance internships sound like a gateway drug, which… yes i suppose i do actually believe this 😛
we went to the met 🙂 i spent most of my time in the asian and american sections because there were less visitors there, as opposed to ancient egypt and modern europe which had all the people because of course that’s what everyone cares about >_< my favorite exhibit was the indoor replica of traditional chinese gardens; turns out there’s a lot of philosophical consideration that goes into the design, which i wasn’t aware of previously? also the natural lighting from the transparent roof and the live fish in the pools were really cute ❤ i think as a kid i used to look at every art piece in an exhibit but now i just gravitate towards the 2-3 most appealing works in each room and spend all my time on them, and i’m not sure which approach is better but i’m pretty sure you’re “supposed” to do the former. looking at all the art and reading the descriptions and etc. definitely helps you learn more, but maybe you burn out faster and appreciate less or something
i read “understand” and it was… okay? there were some cool ideas, but many aspects of the story were very clearly left ambiguous because the author wasn’t intelligent enough to be able to write them. not saying that ted chiang isn’t smart; it’s just like, when you write characters whose defining trait is superhuman intelligence how are you supposed to describe any of their thoughts without sounding silly? i’m not sure what the “right way” to write a story like this is, or if there even is a satisfactory way to do it. hpmor does a better job, but that’s because harry in hpmor is only very intelligent rather than unimaginably intelligent, and he gets a free pass for lapses in judgment because he’s an immature kid
my boss at asimov asked me how to learn math and i realized i don’t actually have a good answer to this question. i’m used to middle and high schoolers asking how to learn math and generally have a good response to that question because they’re usually asking in the context of math contests or about how to learn “real math” in the sense of like, analysis or algebra or something. but when a 30+-year-old computational biologist who already took linalg, diffeq, stats, etc. in college asks about learning math they’re probably asking for something completely different, and i actually have no idea what they’re really looking for? i’m also reminded that i don’t know much math myself; it feels like the only thing distinguishing me from generic math majors is that i’ve done a lot more discrete math from contests, which is weird since i think i “should“ know more than that. anyway i ended up sending my boss some 3blue1brown videos and chapter 2 of acops (the one about general problem-solving with all the brain puzzles; it’s very accessible and probably one of my favorite chapters of any math book) and then he replied “I used to be very happy when I saw the beauty of the universe while learning math and physics. I think I just want to feel happy again.” which made me somewhat sad. i think i understand what he means though, like, you can learn math full-time and get lost in how pretty all of it is and it can make you really happy, but once you leave it feels like you can never really go back to that again
two posts ago i mentioned deciding between sf and boston for april-may and i was stuck on this for maybe a week. marley gave me advice along the lines of “the two people you spend the most time with will shape your experience more than anything else” which i think i agree with if you replace two with five or something. the relevant number varies from person to person; two might be right if you usually spend a lot of time with a few people and a bigger number is probably more correct if your time is distributed more evenly, which i think mine is. anyway i eventually convinced myself boston would be better but then a logistical breakdown (meaning, issues with parents and roommates) occurred so uhh sf it is! i’m planning to visit boston from 4/1 to 4/3 though since ny is so close anyway, so let me know if you want to hang out, socially distanced of course 🙂
on an unrelated note i’ve been reading about mlk’s assassination. this speech excerpt is pretty amazing, and prophetic unfortunately; this line (robert kennedy quoting aeschylus in response to the killing) is just beautiful: “And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God.” someone on amazon reviews looked at a bunch of greek-to-english translations of the same line and it’s kind of hilarious how much more awkward some of them are than others but yes i am very grateful for the existence of good translators 🙂
A Slice of My Mind 
head empty no thoughts just feels
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worried an in-person internship surrounded by finance people would convince me to do finance full-time » this strikes me that either (1) you don’t actually not-want-to-do-finance or (2) you have very little faith in yourself to resist peer pressure or sth
you’re “supposed” to do » i dont think youre “supposed” to do anything in a museum. you just go there and look at things. reminds me of that one time i went to a small-ish museum at like 10am and went out at like 4pm without eating anything because i was just so engrossed in the exhibits, and the only way i realized was because i got hungry lol
write characters whose defining trait is superhuman intelligence » this is why you never write characters smarter than you. in fact just never write fiction
no idea what they’re really looking for » mmmm yeah idk. i dont really know what i get out of studying math tbh. i just want to expire and evaporate and also, die
the relevant number varies from person to person » mine is zero because i am a loner and i hate myself HAHAHAhahaha
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this strikes me that either (1) you don’t actually not-want-to-do-finance or (2) you have very little faith in yourself to resist peer pressure or sth » ya agreed, (1) is true in that even if i dislike the idea of doing finance, i don’t hate it enough for the probability of it happening to be ~0 and (2) is true in that i don’t trust myself to resist addictive things in general. i think these are both reasonable views though? or like, this (losing agency due to addictions) is a class of outcomes i’m paranoid about in general shrug
i dont think youre “supposed” to do anything in a museum » hmm certainly there’s nothing you’re supposed to do, but i think there are still things you’re “supposed” to do? quotations indicate something along the lines of public opinion here if that wasn’t clear
in fact just never write fiction » yep.
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whoa what a boss 😮
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uhh what does this even mean LOL
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oh I mean the way your boss talks to you is so cool (and maybe also the other meaning of “what a boss” 😛 )
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The only thing I can say is that with museums, especially if you’re visiting a country and it’s a super famous one, it’s hard to take in any actual art. It’s more like a checklist of “I went to this famous place and saw these famous paintings.”
Now I just want to go to a museum and just sit there and stare at a single painting for 4 hours straight, just to take it all in. But now many museums have a ton of their art published online, so I could just do that from home lol.
Never read “Understand” and I guess the only book I’ve read that is comparable is “Dune”. The main protagonist in the book is “super-smart” (in a way) and I think Frank Herbert did a great job of fleshing them out and how they used their smarts and abilities to acquire almost unfathomable power. Despite the protagonist being from a royal family on a distant far-future planet, you still relate to them and understand their motivations. Lots of themes from politics to resource-exploitation on top of the cool story. Highly recommend.
Another book that has a super-smart character is the protag in the “Kingkiller Chronicles”. They’re a bit arrogant (just a teensy bit) but it is understandable considering the struggles they had to surmount. Best thing is that it takes place in a fantasy setting, so you can just make up stuff to why the protag is gifted without having to go into giving them “actual irl” knowledge. The main focus of the book isn’t about magic but about relationships I would say.
I would say a cheap way/cop out to write such a character would be place them in a fantasy-esque setting and say they know “potions” or something idk. To take it to another step requires understanding that a character with super-smarts isn’t interesting solely because of that but how they interact with other characters in the story and how their unique capabilities serve as foils for characters/society.
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The only thing I can say is that with museums, especially if you’re visiting a country and it’s a super famous one, it’s hard to take in any actual art. It’s more like a checklist of “I went to this famous place and saw these famous paintings.” » i don’t agree? unless you mean that famous museums have tons of people so you can’t focus or something
dune seems cool, might check it out 🙂
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