Juan David's Newsletter - December 05, 2021
Asymmetric Opportunities, CS from First Principles, and
Hi there,
You know when you hear Spotify Wrapped, the year is pretty much over. Did it really go that fast? For me, it felt like I did essentially nothing. College takes away much of my time and I’m not doing things I want to do.
We can fix this! This will certainly be a question in my 2021 annual review.
What other questions?
A big question will be what stories am I telling myself? And, how can I tell myself better and more interesting stories?
Life itself is a story, and every day we’re telling ourselves our life story, which makes me wonder, how can I write a better story?
Before that, I have the rush of finals and final projects. I have two finals: one for calculus and one for physics and as well as a CS project (on GitHub soon).
Curiosities ⏳🔌🎅
1. If Balaji was in college, what would he study?
I’m attending a series of VR lectures every Wednesday at 11 PM to build the first Network State. Want to join? I’ll refer you. Reply to this email.
I attended the first one and the feeling of building something no one else will hear for a few years but could have an insane impact and scale is unmatched.
At the end of the talk, we left the VR world and went to the after party on the Discord voice channel.
People were quiet so I keep asking and asking questions to Balaji.
I asked him what he would study if he was in college. This is what he said:
Computer Science & Statistics
Studying CS is like being a physicist in the 20th century because you could literally work on any engineering and science project.
In this century, a lot of things are done by, with, and in computers. Next, he suggests statistics as the skill set to understand data.
On the more practical side, he recommended:
2. Asymmetric Opportunities
Asymmetric opportunities are opportunities with high upside and restricted downside.
These types of opportunities combined with leverage are my favorite.
Here are some of my favorites:
Writing online
Asking what you want
Being ambitious with everything you do
Speaking up in class
Emailing interesting people and learning from them
Making YouTube videos
And more!!!
Want more? See this thread for more ideas.
If you want a more nuanced argument on this idea, I’d recommend this excellent article.
3. Opportunity Planning
I’m rereading A Guide to Career Planning by Marc Andressen, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who has an idea of what to do with their life/career but are not sure.
It includes thoughts on how to assess opportunity, what to study in college, and what industry to choose when job-hunting.
Start with the introduction. If it seems interesting, start with Part 1.
Here’s a preview:
The first rule of career planning: Do not plan your career.
4. Computer Science from First Principles
There are many ways to learn computer science. One way, it’s to take a bunch of classes to learn useful theory to solve problems. The other way, it’s to have an idea and try to code it in whatever way you can.
Regardless of the path one chooses, understanding how computers work from first principles will teach you the limits of what you can and can’t do (but could figure out).
I’ll be taking this course after school is over.
5. Did Holidays Die for Grown-ups?
Maybe it’s just me.
But does it feel like every year major holidays like Christmas are just less exciting?
Does this feel true for others? If so, what can we do revamp these celebrations?
What do you think?
Before you go, I’m curious about this:
If you could ask Santa for a gift, what would you ask?
Ciao,
Juan David Campolargo