Lots of traveling and intensity.
- Just finished a trip to Dartmouth where I gave a talk and did some collaborations. Dartmouth is, like Stanford, a fantasy land that one can live in, but seems utterly different from the surrounding community. Best phrase learned during the trip (from Sylvester Gates): “sports is men’s version of gossip.”
- Started shooting around / doing drills at the neighborhood basketball court in mornings when I miss sprints (due to class preparation/sprint-specific pain, etc.). Supplemented by stealing moves from basketball videos and challenging people to one-on-one. Mikan drills have been really good for getting the left-hand.
- just had another successful year of SPARC, with higher-profile guest speakers (Dustin Moskovitz and Scott Aaronson); 35 kids felt a lot more manageable than the 40 last year. I felt surprisingly less important this year, which is a good thing. I should hopefully be completely replaceable in the next 3 years. (my replaceability is a good trait for SPARC to have; this is orthogonal with my own wishes to stay with SPARC)
Blue Slate 