relaxed week
Note: This post was imported and originally posted on leaflet on 2025-06-21
work
DSO work is slowing down again, until I have to focus on making the presentation in a couple of weeks. But the slow-down gave me a chance to make real progress on my other projects. I only had like one meeting a day this week, and I was able to completely focus on the whichever projects I wanted for the rest of the whole day.
On Juneteenth, my partner and I also did some very chill work together all day. It was a good way to take a mini-brake while still making progress on the interesting parts of my research.
non-work
Visiting my family was so fun! I always like getting an extra chance to spend time with my siblings, and celebrating Father's Day is really important to all of us. It was tiring traveling, but I think it's something I still want to do in the future, pretty regularly.
I also finished On the Edge by Nate Silver this week (I forgot to confirm my Oryx and Crake hold). I definitely would push back against a lot of his framing of certain problems, like AI risk, cryptocurrency, etc. Overall, I have mixed views about the effective altruism movement, generally have a negative view of legalized gambling, and think AI poses more important economic threats than doom threats. But, I still enjoyed getting a fresh view. I think a lot of the opinions and perspectives I read are from the "village," as Nate would say.
Until I get another chance at Oryx and Crake, I've started reading The Algebra of Wealth by Scott Galloway. I'm only at the beginning, but I appreciate the plain language that the book is written in. I'm hoping it'll also help me get some of my personal finances more responsibly managed. I have complicated views about the financial institutions that developed in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, though. So, I'm still searching for an investment strategy that aligns with my values and secures my future.
things i saw this week
The Fulbright Board wrote an open letter resigning, blaming interference from the current administration
An NBC article reporting that TikTok just keeps getting more and more extensions
A NYT article showcasing ways that (non-LLM) AI is being used today
questions
Are there interesting open cryptographic questions building on things like the LoRa Mesh Network?
I met someone last week who seemed excited about the network, and I thought I remembered a paper about decentralized messaging
Thanks for reading to the end! Here's a picture of a penguin I saw this week:
