I apologize for the relentlessly solipsistic posts recently. Being in New York in a new environment is giving me a chance to re-examine what I take for granted. It’s interesting to see what behaviors translated through the move untouched (e.g. I still prefer eating in to going out), and what hasn’t (e.g. I don’t miss […]
Category: journal
Humility
I have been extraordinarily fortunate in my life to have things generally go as I hope they will. I got to go to the schools I wanted to, I got the jobs I wanted to, I’ve done the activities I wanted to. Things just seem to fall into place for me. Part of it is […]
Keeping busy
Gosh, what have I been up to since my last journal post two weeks ago? The day after that post, I went to see my first Dorkbot in NYC, which was excellent. I really enjoyed John Arroyo’s presentation on rhythmic research. He’s using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to analyze drum beat patterns in songs. Originally […]
The Passionate Self
I’ve been thinking a lot about the idea of passion since my post about narcissism. It’s also come up in a variety of places, from conversations I’ve had with friends, to books I’m reading. I don’t know if this is one of those coincidental things, or because the universe is trying to tell me something, […]
New experiences
So in the spirit of my last post, let’s recount some new experiences of the last week, aka a “This is what I’ve been doing” post. Last Wednesday, I went to see a talk by Natalie Jeremijenko at the Whitney Museum (I got a free ticket through the dorkbot list), who I first saw speak […]
Goals in life
I was talking to my friend Wes over the weekend, and he mentioned a talk he’d seen by Charlie Munger, right hand man of Warren Buffett. Munger apparently has a background in economics and law, and mentioned in his talk about how he had benefitted repeatedly from having a broader background than most in his […]
Narcissism
A couple days ago, Kathy Sierra put up a post at her blog Creating Passionate Users where she invited her readers to introduce themselves. Most of her questions were pretty standard, but she stuck one in the middle that made me think: “One thing you’re passionate about (qualifier: must be something you are always trying […]
Weekend of theater
A while back, I read the book 21 Dog Years, by Mike Daisey, about his three years in the topsy-turvy world of Amazon. I later found out that he performs the material as a one-man monologue – I had a couple opportunities to see him at the Berkeley Rep, but never got around to it. […]
Solar powered
When I was in California, I would wake up pretty reliably around 7am. I always wondered what my trigger was for that, whether I unconsciously checked the clock or there was a circadian rhythm thing going or the garbage truck coming by or what. Now that I’m in New York, I think I have the […]
How to Win Friends and Influence People, by Dale Carnegie
Amazon link I read this book once long ago, but Joel insisted I re-read it after starting last week. So I took it home for the weekend and read it while taking breaks from unpacking. It’s a quick read, with short chapters. And it’s excellent. What’s interesting to me is that I totally didn’t appreciate […]
