Short and sweet — Monday (4/20): Functional programming I watched a computer science lecture on functional programming today. I admit my mind was pretty blown upon learning about this whole new way to approach programming! It also hit me how useful these concepts are for data analysis. Two summers ago, I had a research advisor who sang the…

Still sheltering in place. — (Monday 4/13): Joining writing communities Today, I scoured the internet for tips on how to be a better writer. Of the dozens of listicles I read, here were the points I found good and tractable: Write regularly, and turn it into a ritual Find a writing partner or workshop Don’t revise as you write (…

Another week rolls by in Quarantine. — (Monday 4/06): Big Kitchen cleanout My sister and I did a massive kitchen cleanout today. Now, this was a big deal for us — I can count the number of times we cleaned certain cabinets over my lifetime on a single hand. We have this one shelf that sat above the kitchen counter, which, if…

Sheltering in place, gracefully — The coronavirus pandemic has been thrust upon us all, and like the rest of the country right now, I’m sheltering in place. As the world fights for its life, I’ve been spending a LOT of time couch-potatoing, eating, and following the news — rinse and repeat. …

Bringing to you one of my favorite Neuroscience papers ever — Walter White, a high school chemistry teacher, is faced with a terminal cancer diagnosis shortly after his fiftieth birthday. Knowing the burden his illness would have on his family and that he had only a few months left to live, he decides to take matters of supporting his family into…

Not-so obvious insights that I’ve learned as a young adult who can legally drink now — 1. Stop being so hard on yourself Being tough on oneself is a motivating mindset useful for self-improvement, though while dialing up the intensity, a line gets crossed at some point that flips it into an incredibly demotivating (and painful) one. Perfectionism and a tendency to feel guilty a lot is the reason why I shut down…

Identity struggles are a natural part of life for people who’ve grown up wedged between different cultures, yet I don’t see it being discussed enough among my Asian-American peers. …

What China today looks like to a Chinese-American student studying abroad in Shanghai — As a child raised by two Chinese immigrant parents in the US, I knew little about how life was really like for mainland Chinese people. I’ve spent over two months now living in Shanghai for my study abroad semester, and I still remember a lot of things about China that…

Here’s a thing I noticed: Using your phone camera to document the things in your life is a lot like using a highlighter when studying. I think of going through life and going through papers as similar processes: in both cases, you’re faced with the formidable goal of relishing and…