Chinatown during the parade

chinese church -> sfpl -> promoted hackathon and gave out flyers -> another coffee -> city chopsticks -> bible study

1. Asimov Press
   • a publisher focused on science and tech that promote flourishing, an editorially-independent publishing team funded by Asimov, Inc., a genetic design company in Boston, read the stories they would like to publish
2. Duolingo handbook
   • take the long view to build a forever product, test and learn at warp speed, ruthless prioritization on mission and outcome, show don't tell - lead with results of the work, not story of the effort, great products don't have to explain themselves
3. why you’re failing data science interviews
   • #1 structured problem solving skills and comm skills
     • ask a lot of clarifying questions and actually listen (pay attention to the interviewer's hints)
     • communicate with a structure: jot down inputs, write down any assumptions, sketch out a high-level outline
     • answer with data
   • #2 ability to introspect, learn and improve
     • admit you have failed, don't give a generic weakness like you're a perfectionist
     • SAFE: 1) summarize weakness, 2) acknowledge impact, 3) find examples of improvements, 4) expand on future improvement plants
   • #3 balance short-term and long-term solutions
     • this is a key skill in fast-paced environments, you need to trade off between quality for speed, and we often need a good-enough solution. if you're trained to do things "right", any imperfection will cause deep discomfort
     • key questions:
       • Tell me about a time when you had to deliver a solution under time pressure. How did you handle the situation?
       • Have you ever had to deliver a less-than-perfect solution? What did you do?
     • how?
       • ability to identify hacky short-term solutions
       • ability to recognize the caveat of these solutions and improvements you can make
       • grit to iterate the hacky solution into a robust one
4. How to solve problems
   • "Very few people are good at reliably solving problems they're encountering for the first time" (most people can only solve problems they've seen before)
   • first step: understand the type of problem
     • is it a one-way or two-way door decision? (reversible vs irreversible)
       • for reversible decisions, try something and iterate based on feedback
       • for irreversible decisions with high impact, take time to analyze thoroughly
       • minimize expected cost: (probability of being wrong) × (cost of being wrong)
     • can you break it into smaller steps?
     • what are the opportunity costs? (what can't you do if you choose this path)
     • is it recurring or one-off? (automate recurring problems, create principles for similar problems)
     • are you solving symptoms or root causes? (e.g., team conflict might be due to unclear roles)
   • define the actual problem
     • dig into the "why" behind requests to understand the real problem
     • be careful not to reopen already-decided issues
     • moving too fast without understanding can actually slow you down (e.g., implementing a vendor solution before knowing what you need)
   • identify and structure options
     • make options MECE (Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive)
     • don't forget "do nothing" as an option
     • use issue trees to organize complex problems
   • evaluate options systematically
     • develop clear evaluation criteria based on what decision-makers care about
     • prioritize analysis that can eliminate options early
     • focus on factors that will affect the decision most
     • start with non-negotiable requirements to quickly eliminate unfeasible options
5. three observations by sam altman
   • AGI = a system that can tackle increasingly complex problems, at human level, in many fields
   • AI is like transistors economically – scales well and seeps into every corner of the economy, and something we don't think much about (transistors or transistor companies), but we expect computers, TVs, smartphones, to perform magic
   • "Agency, willfulness, and determination will likely be extremely valuable. Correctly deciding what to do and figuring out how to navigate an ever-changing world will have huge value; resilience and adaptability will be helpful skills to cultivate"
   • "one of our reasons for launching products early and often is to give society and the technology time to co-evolve"
   • "everyone should have access to unlimited genius to direct however they can imagine. There is a great deal of talent right now without the resources to fully express itself, and if we change that, the resulting creative output of the world will lead to tremendous benefits for us all"
6. Why Skyscrapers Became Glass Boxes
   • it's interesting to learn about how a skyscraper is built. i never saw them as a money-making machine, a business venture where you invest, in hopes to getting money back after renting it out. i love how many people are involved, from real estate developers and architects, the politicians and community, the developers and builders. and it's sad that ornate masonry or stonework skills are being lost because of the glass aesthetics of new buildings. and because investors are risk averse, developers and builders also stick to what's safe and follow the current systems. we used to build great things.
7. Your favorite newsletter’s favorite newsletters – 135 newsletters by recommended more than 50 writers
8. openness elaine
   • "a romantic relationship can be a container to work through your trauma, but that can only happen through conflict"
   • Love is more like a basketball than a crystal vase: "A vase looks beautiful and perfect on the outside but breaks when dropped. When you drop a basketball, it bounces back. If you view conflict as a destructive force, you’ll try to avoid it at all costs. But that’s just deferring the problem until it erupts later, with catastrophic consequences, reaffirming your belief that conflict is destructive. When handled well, conflict makes a relationship more resilient" – Thomas Hooven on Modern love
   • in any relationship, the goal is not to convince someone their perspective is wrong. all you can do is express what's important to you and hold space for the other person's truth
   • "There is a secret about human love that is commonly overlooked: Receiving it is much more scary and threatening than giving it. [...] Openness is our capacity to let be, to allow, to let in and receive others as they are, in a gentle, spacious way, without having to dominate them or bend them to our will. This kind of letting be is the greatest kindness we can offer those we love." – John Welwood, Perfect Love, Imperfect Relationships
9. An open letter to 56 people I know – sasha – for future reference when i want to write letters to people
10. Website Carbon Calculator
    • by beleaf, focused on delivering a sustainable web