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Stories for geeks
Life, stickers, things I’m fascinated by, fiction, lists—
Media
About me
Yoyo personal doc
Jot notes below
Some people!
People I adore the most
Esther is a confused human being
Yuxi on the wired (@layer07_yuxi)
Priyav Kaneria (the projects site looks cool)
Verda
Jx
Sichu Lu
Stacy (@voidshapes)
Trinity Dysis
Addy of Ekkolapto
Worrydream - I just enjoy this website with an intensity!
Nicky Case - Her website helped me to be more cybernetically
authentic, inspired me to write online and create science explanations too
My media influences
Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! - Self explanatory.
Genius trilogy - I discovered the book when I was 14 years old and have been actively reshaping my world to build sci-fi like things with self-taught geeks.
Friendship is optimal: Caelum est conterrens - Absolutely fascinating! I felt super excited about speculative neurotechnologies, AGI
and the metaverse and thought this would be my life trajectory. I also got pulled in the rationality community in grade 11.
Quora - My high school years in a nutshell
Random moments (non-technical)
“I’m going to be 20 soon.” A talented friend expressed. “The age sounds so bad!” Distant friends had near-perfect lives, prestigious universities, internships, are getting ahead properly and had space to be upset about intelligent people becoming quants. Life is long though and has many tracks. Provost Chandler at Minerva had an unconventional trajectory. She had daughters at 19, worked hard to earn tuition while discovering an interest in marine biology, started community college at 24, continued on to a PhD and later at the National Science Foundation! I admire her. Separately from quora answer: “I am haunted by visions of what could be if I JUST DIDN'T FREAKED OUT AND RUINED A GOOD THING.” Yeah I could’ve gotten into that nerdy university if I parsed instructions properly, but let’s not cry over counterfactual selves and focus on what’s to come.
1/19/2025
met a friend who appeared pushy initially. But hm, I’m being judgy. I realized this is how “grit” can come across to the out-group.
1/06/2025
A Chinese grandma admired how I was studying in the US and told me to work hard. People find her silly. I was holding back tears. School is an opportunity, not a given. Being able to travel, to have money, loved ones and knowledge is literally many people’s dream lives. Others are often oblivious to these starting conditions and forget how to work hard. People had to wake up at 5 am and work for 12 hours; We were catching flights at 4 am. There’s no room for executive dysfunction or taking a nap at work or I’m having brain fog right now. Unhappiness is just a feeling. “How do people make time for life admin tasks? and replying to non-urgent messages?” A brilliant friend asked in a group chat. Sitting in one of the printer rooms I stared at people using hotkeys on excel. I got bored after an hour and read a github.io to pass the time. They’ve been doing it for 20 - 30 years and are not passionate about this dying industry. Contrast to how some friends are born in mansions and they can just crawl online forums, draw and read philosophy all day long (wonderful life btw). Some acquaintances look down at people speaking in plain language and say “ew, what a normie”. They don’t realize what others are probably doing rather than thinking. And “the economic base determines the superstructure”. Just looking at the MIT maker portfolios you’d see that access to resources and mentorships gets people so far!
1/05/2025
My life trajectory could be significantly altered, and the decision-makers are taking way too long. I can wait for information to be perfect and try to optimize yada yada, or, I can act with speed. Start early. Events would likely run out of spots if you apply near the end.
1/02/2025
when I met with Verda again, I was so concerned with school, “finals season” and didn’t say much. "So what else are you up to, aside from Minerva?" she asked cheerily. I was startled and had no answer. The world is a big place.
12/19/2025
@layer07_yuxi’s focus and ability to avoid distractions are really inspiring.
12/02/2024
Harvard dude yelled at me for being stuck in the windows purgatory, tried to delete my system files and told me to use linux
08/20/2024
An acquaintance we just met texted in a group chat about ending his life and triggered a chain of concerned phone calls. Around 12 am I led two friends to check on his house. The light in his room was on. No one’s there. The police asked for his biological age, friends, partners. We didn’t know a thing. They pinged his phone and it was out of charge earlier at 2 pm. “Can you check the public cameras?” Another acquaintance asked the police. In real life we can’t just use sudo command. It was super unfortunate, I intended to become friends with him. Earlier while we’re in a subway, he randomly asked to take a selfie and never sent the picture.
I was shocked by three things.
1. people’s behaviour under stress. One friend tried to flee when the police came, and the other tried to crack a lot of jokes that obviously didn't fit the atmosphere.
2. indifference. aside from one other person, nobody was pushing hard enough to find him. people had to move on.
3. insufficient infrastructure/analytics. since it's not a limit of physics but is a social problem. If you’re missing, we might actually not be able to find you.
08/08/2024