the repository

what is happening

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 12:19:54 -0700

If life isn’t a race, then why do I feel so behind?

Actual content may or may not be coming soon.

I have no idea what I'm doing

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 20:12:29 -0700

I have no idea what I'm doing

How to think about science and becoming a scientist

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 23:18:35 -0700

How to think about science and becoming a scientist

How to Do What You Love

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 01:34:05 -0700

How to Do What You Love

College admissions: the conclusion (probably)

Sat, 07 Apr 2012 00:26:03 -0700

Congratulations on your admission to Berkeley and to the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences (pronounced “eeks”)! The 2012 entering class, selected from over two thousand applicants, will be one of the most highly qualified in history. You are entering a field with limitless prospects and unbounded intellectual excitement. We look forward to sharing that excitement with you.

I’m going to UC Berkeley, unless I get off of Caltech’s waitlist, which is very unlikely. It’s one of the best schools for computer science and mathematics (and just about anything else, really), it’s a comfortable distance from home, it costs half as much as Carnegie Mellon, and most of my friends are going. Realistically, it’s pretty much the best school I could go to.

I’m still disappointed in myself, though.

If I had gotten rejected by all the private schools I applied to, I’d feel pretty bad too. But that Caltech, Cornell, and Mudd waitlisted me shows that while I definitely had the potential to get into those schools, I just wasn’t good enough for them. (Hell, I even thought that I would get into Cornell and Mudd.) It feels like it was my own fault that I didn’t get in, not that I wasn’t a good fit for these schools. And I’m still upset about not even getting invited for an interview for Berkeley’s Regents scholarship. (I feel like that was my fault too.)

The thought goes: if I had studied harder for that English test, or started doing math competitions earlier, or done any of the many other things that could have boosted my chances, then I would have gotten in. The fact that I was too lazy, or too shy, or too <negative characteristic here> to do these things makes me pretty angry at myself.

Talk about first world problems.

Photo

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 00:59:09 -0700

Photo

Sat, 31 Mar 2012 13:13:44 -0700

College Admissions: Final Results

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 20:29:22 -0700

I received 7 acceptances, 3 waitlists, and 2 rejections.

Admitted

Carnegie Mellon University (School of Computer Science)
University of California, Berkeley (Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences)
University of Illinois at Urbana-Campaign (Mathematics and Computer Science)
University of California, Los Angeles (Computer Science)
University of California, San Diego (Mathematics and Computer Science)
University of California, Irvine (Computer Science)
California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo (Computer Science)

Waitlist

California Institute of Technology (accepted place on waitlist)
Cornell University (College of Arts and Sciences, Computer Science) (did not accept waitlist)
Harvey Mudd College (did not accept waitlist)

Reject

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Stanford University

I have completed my review of your institution, and I am so sorry to tell you that I am unable to...

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 15:50:42 -0700

I have completed my review of your institution, and I am so sorry to tell you that I am unable to attend your school.

There were many qualified candidates this year, so I have had to decline the vast majority of applicants. I know this news is disappointing to receive, and for that reason I will not send a duplicate decision letter by mail. I am complimented by your interest in me and thank you for the hard work your decision represents.

I am very sorry to bring you this news, and I wish your institution the very best as it continues to educate students.

(PGM-class lecture videos.) 23 minutes? I’d prefer 15...

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 23:51:49 -0700

(PGM-class lecture videos.) 23 minutes? I’d prefer 15 minutes or less… my attention wanders too much.

Paper

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 23:22:29 -0700

Paper

Photo

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 15:32:38 -0700

Derandomized: BAYES NET BY EXAMPLE USING PYTHON AND KHAN ACADEMY DATA

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 00:54:02 -0700

Derandomized: BAYES NET BY EXAMPLE USING PYTHON AND KHAN ACADEMY DATA:

jacekohlmeier:

Bayesian networks (and probabilistic graphical models more generally) are cool. We computer geeks can love ‘em because we’re used to thinking of big problems modularly and using data structures. But better than being cool, they’re useful. Especially if you have the kind of problem that involves…

Hmm. I’m thinking that I’ll stick with PGM-class, not NLP or Crypto. (Never mind that I haven’t done the homework for NLP or Crypto yet.)

Video

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 23:59:05 -0700

Create Content: The Psychology of Tackling Hard Problems

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 18:04:20 -0700

Create Content: The Psychology of Tackling Hard Problems:

dmvaldman:

The thing about hard problems is that there are many difficulties and few solutions. Sounds obvious, but what’s often overlooked is the psychological component to this asymmetry. There’s a simple reason why tackling a hard problem can lead to depressive symptoms: you’re necessarily wrong 99% of the time.

CMU <3

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 21:15:30 -0700

CMU <3

An Equation For Creating Awesome

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 14:21:39 -0700

An Equation For Creating Awesome

How Universities Work, or: What I Wish I’d Known Freshman Year: A Guide to American University Life for the Uninitiated

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 14:09:00 -0700

How Universities Work, or: What I Wish I’d Known Freshman Year: A Guide to American University Life for the Uninitiated:

The only problem I have with this essay is his attitude regarding science classes. Clearly he hasn’t taken any good science classes.

OK, maybe it’s not such a good idea to take all the MITx/Coursera/Udacity courses. I need As...

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 00:49:10 -0700

OK, maybe it’s not such a good idea to take all the MITx/Coursera/Udacity courses. I need As in Data Structures/Algo, LinAlg, DiffEq, and Discrete, and Bs in everything else. So let’s look at this problem from a time-based perspective. I think I’ll be able to handle at most two (maybe three) MITx/Coursera/Udacity courses before my ability to get anything out of these courses drops.

Based on what I’ve seen so far, circuits and electronics aren’t quite as inspiring to me as the CS topics that Coursera and Udacity are teaching, so MITx’s course will probably be the first to go. (I do think they have a pretty good course format, though.) Beyond that, I’ll have to try out the other courses enough to get a sense of what I care enough about to work on; I think I’ll go for one Udacity course and one Coursera course, to get a balance between Udacity’s focus on practical knowledge and Coursera’s slightly more theoretical bent.

6.002x homework due tomorrow. Crypto homework due Monday. NLP homework due Tuesday. Crap.

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 22:50:20 -0700

6.002x homework due tomorrow.
Crypto homework due Monday.
NLP homework due Tuesday.

Crap.