also on mit admissions there are two popular approaches to moving a cart. the first one is to stand behind the cart and push it in the direction you want to go: the second is to stand in front of the cart and pull it such that it trails behind you: people usually default to … Continue reading how to move carts

i’ve been spending a lot of time on my nanotech and program synthesis classes, which are both confusing nanotech is a bit out of my depth; i spent a week learning how to cad and getting familiar with autodesk fusion 360, spent another week cramming optics and trying to understand how lenses and microscopes work, … Continue reading short update

at the ripe age of twenty-one i am beginning to feel my body weaken and crumble in ways that were not previously noticeable. for instance: i notice myself feeling cold much more easily now. as a kid and teenager i could walk in shorts in 40 degree (fahrenheit) weather without any issue, whereas currently the … Continue reading sunscreen

it occurs to me that i never said what i’m doing this semester i’m taking four classes and listening on several others: discrete math seminar (18.204) - graduation requirement where we read discrete math papers and practice giving talks. i was assigned several papers on the lovasz local lemma, which is reasonably interesting but not … Continue reading classes and stuff

also posted on mit admissions i. in the business world, a unicorn is a startup with a valuation of over one billion dollars. this says very little about the internals of the company - there are many examples of unicorns with almost zero revenue (apna’s estimated revenue was ~2mil/year when its valuation hit 1bil) or … Continue reading unicorns

also on mit admissions in april my friend recommended the excellent article becoming a magician Not only is any sufficiently advanced technology indistinguishable from magic; any sufficiently advanced technologist seems like a magician…Even though he placed first and I placed fifth and logically we both existed on a scale of ‘competence at bodypainting’ it seemed … Continue reading magicians

i didn’t think i would end up making 5 summer update posts, but here we are i read order without design! it was a good introduction to the relationship between markets and cities, discussing how different approaches to urban planning often fail because they don’t align with market forces, eg. regulating maximum building height or … Continue reading summer update v

also posted on mit admissions in my favorite naruto scene, a samurai and a ninja charge at each other. everyone expects their blades to collide in midair, but instead, this is the result: the samurai’s sword (left) slashes straight through the ninja’s sword (right) and breaks it in half. then the samurai says something along … Continue reading sharp and soft

short post my work at exafunction ended. it was interesting and i got a return offer but i’d prefer not to think about it for now as i have a lot of related post-college decisions to make, the most pressing one being where to live. if i work a standard in-person tech job the options … Continue reading summer update iv

also posted on mit admissions i am in the tenth week of my summer job and i can remember how the first three weeks each felt blissfully long, as if i’d found a way to cheat time, and how everything since then has melted into an indistinguishable blob. this is a familiar experience, the feeling … Continue reading i’m building a still to slow down the time