Posts
Students of the Cubicle
Expectations of qualifications in the hiring world seem only to go up in scope and complexity, so much so that I think people forget that they’re not meant to be in school forever. I hope that as I grow and gain new experiences I’ll get a clearer idea of how to address or attenuate this confound.
March 26, 2023
Under the Hood
Ultimately, my schedule is starting to constrain me to mostly technical coursework, and I’ve resisted less and less as time goes on. But I still find ways to integrate the humanities into my daily life. Oh, and ChatGPT put generative artificial intelligence on the map this autumn.
December 24, 2022
An Inconvenient Summer
At times my college journey has felt like a mosaic of shapeless clay—mesmerizing and directionless—and at times it’s felt like a pristine ceramic vase—coherent but brittle.
September 4, 2022
Sun’s Out, Guns Out
Students I saw on campus were washed up at the shore and stressed and hurting. When you’re in a state like that, the set of solutions to a differential equation suddenly isn’t that important anymore. So as the days went on, I sought to further a sense of purpose and community in my life and work.
June 13, 2022
The Imaginary Bird
Upon a journey to understand quantum hardware, algorithms, and theory among other subjects, the men and women behind what I study came into clearer view. Then, I thought, perhaps it is possible to be shielded from a storm by building a shelter with the very material that afflicts you.
March 25, 2022
Night and Day
In only a few months of on-campus life, I have met several new people, familiar faces, siblings of familiar faces, and colleagues from Zoom University. I’ve visited the Cantor Arts Center and attended football games. Perhaps college is a big all-you-can-eat buffet, with analogous agony and ecstasy.
December 10, 2021
California Dreamin’
After a remote freshman year, I am moving in today and at last and can independently confirm that my college campus exists.
September 16, 2021
Quarter 4: A Reflection
My internship gave me the chance to view the current political and journalistic landscape through code.
August 27, 2021
On Writing a Novel
As the fundamental laws of physics change when an object goes from the quantum scale to a normal Newtonian size, so a novel is not governed, necessarily, by the same principles as most forms of writing.
August 25, 2021
Quarter 3: A Reflection
When I computed my final Fourier transform on June 4 and handed in my last exam of the school year, the relief I felt was slight but nonzero nevertheless.
June 18, 2021
Quarter 2: A Reflection
With a couple of days until winter quarter started, reopening plans were canceled for the second time after several reaffirmations, and adapting to that news has taken the whole ten weeks.
March 19, 2021
Quarter 1: A Reflection
The subject matter of my courses has been endlessly fascinating.
November 21, 2020
A Panoramic View of Chicago
In this complex city, the camera can direct one’s attention to the forms, lights, shadows, and patterns that resonate the most, opening the mind to subjects that may have never gone noticed before.
November 17, 2020
The Great Exultation
“Harmony, balance, and rhythm. They’re the three things that stay with you your whole life.”
June 18, 2020
Music and Math
What’s the first thing you see when you look at a piece of sheet music? A fraction.
January 24, 2020
A Lifetime of Cars
For years, I had heard the urban myths and legends of a possible space-age Corvette with a mid-mounted engine. As of July, the dream is now the reality.
October 31, 2019
Breaking 300 in the Bugatti Chiron
When the Bugatti Chiron first debuted, I noticed that its speedometer went to 500 kilometers per hour—a bit over 300 miles per hour. Surely they were joking, right?
September 3, 2019
The Future of Computing
After visiting Argonne National Laboratory today, there is no reason at all to be afraid of the future of computing.
January 31, 2018