I’m currently very interested in brain-machine interfaces. There’s some magic stuff happening up in those crania, and I’d like to see what we can do with a little engineering.

More generally, I like to figure out how things work. My second most prized possesion in kindergarten was the hit picture book The Way Things Work (the first was my stuffed bear, who I was convinced was a dog). This lives on in reflective conversations, close reading (of media, but also of the designed environment and emergent phenomena), and wandering behind the scenes.

Trailer of my life:

• Spawned in Michigan, lived in 4 states/attended 8 schools by age 12
• Elementary school “recess” had pickaxes and power tools
• High school friend group spent COVID coding on voice call together
• Now indiscriminately studying STEM at Caltech (techn. CS/Neuro (CNS))

Things that consistently leave me in awe:

• the sparsity of our lives (we’re just tiny threads through spacetime, woven together)
• elevation, especially mountains and cliffs, especially over the ocean
• city (or better yet, airport taxiway) lights, simultaneously enchanting and repelling
• the stars

Beliefs/axioms:

• The subjective experience is— a miracle! And we can mold it:
  • The fractal of experience contains infinite wonder.
  • The world (and thus, the experience) is malleable via technology.
• Community/trust is key.
  • We’re all just people trying to get along and explore the world.
  • We’re mostly on the same team—team “make the world better”.
  • Quality. Scale is an engineering problem.
• Mindset matters. I am practicing
  • Optimism and imagination (physics provides realism),
  • Intentionality / focus / discipline / alignment,
  • Reduced mental inertia,
    • Fear is the mind killer.
    • Live a pure/light life.
  • Stepping back, and keeping my eyes on the prize

It seems like there’s a lot of fun stuff to do; and we can do it.