[EDIT 2018/03/05: This description seems significantly less accurate to me now than it did a few years ago, both because my views/values have changed substantially, and because SPARC has changed direction substantially since I attended as a junior counselor in 2015. I'll leave it here as a reference, but should be taken with a grain… Continue reading Things SPARC
Category: Essays
Conversations
I've recently come to believe that "deep conversations" are overrated. Here is why. Memory Human short term memory is pretty crummy. Here is an illustration from linguistics: A man that a woman that a child that a bird that I heard saw knows loves This is a well-formed English phrase. And yet parsing it is… Continue reading Conversations
Transferring
Apparently even people on Quora want to know why I transferred from Harvard to MIT. Since I've been asked this question way too many times, I guess I should give an answer, once and for all. There were plenty of reasons (and anti-reasons). I should say some anti-reasons first to give due credit -- the… Continue reading Transferring
Writing
In high school, I hated English class and thought it was a waste of time. Now I'm in college, and I still hate English class and think it's a waste of time. (Nothing on my teachers, they were all nice people, and I hope they're not reading this.) However, I no longer think writing itself… Continue reading Writing
Power Overwhelming 