index.md (8024B)
1 +++ 2 title = "Stanford Quarterly Reflection (Y2Q1)" 3 date = 2025-01-04 4 [extra] 5 type = "post" 6 +++ 7 8 Last year my friends would often pointedly remind me that I was a 9 freshman. So it's been a little weird this quarter no longer holding 10 that title. However, as far as beginnings go, I'd say it's off to a fine 11 start. 12 13 <!-- more --> 14 15 ### Academics 16 17 This quarter is what Stanford is supposed to be. I learned. A ton. I was 18 enrolled in: 19 20 1. MATH 21: Calculus 21 2. COMPLIT 37Q: Zionism and the Novel 22 3. SUSTAIN 345: Sustainable Societies Lab 23 4. DESIGN 11: Visual Thinking 24 5. CS 148: Introduction to Computer Graphics and Imaging 25 26 The extent to which I was actually *in* MATH 21, despite my enrollment, 27 is somewhat questionable. I attended very few lectures, and I think 28 possibly two discussion sections. On balance, I think this was alright. 29 I obviously didn't derive as much as I could have from the course (pun 30 intended), but I performed adequately and had more time to devote to 31 things that interested me far more. This is despite my liking the 32 professor: when I did manage to show up for lecture, I felt a bit like I 33 was participating in the mathematical world of yore. The class did 34 manage to have a statistically significant impact on my sleep though! 35 See if you can guess when the problem sets were due: 36 37  39 40 Zionism and the Novel was a real treat. The [syllabus](syllabus.pdf) was 41 so interesting that I felt guilty any time I had to skip a reading, and 42 promised to catch up on it at a later date for my own good. I'm still 43 working on that. I also ended up sharing [a lot] of [my writing] from 44 the course on this site, which is a very nice plus. 45 46 The Sustainable Societies Lab continues to be a blast (I participated in 47 another incarnation of it [last spring]). We heard from a number of 48 deeply knowledgeable speakers from a broad range of fields. I was blown 49 away by Marc Tarpenning, which also made [its way] into [some posts] 50 here. I also strongly disagreed with the founder of Beyond Meat, and 51 will attribute any future failure to his attitude and any future success 52 to pure luck. The latter half of that sentence is a joke. 53 54 DESIGN 11, my [old nemesis][last spring], was possibly my favorite 55 class. It was certainly the most impactful—I think I will never look at 56 the world the same way after taking it. The class forced me to become 57 comfortable sitting in the liminal space of making things. There are 58 very few ventures that you can be sure of before embarking upon them. 59 Most entail some space in between, where each step from the start takes 60 you further toward your ultimate destination. Some steps are misplaced, 61 mistakes that you have to recognize and adapt to instead of abandoning 62 your progress and starting again from scratch. This process must feel 63 like home to you if you want to make something. The class instigates 64 this change in its students by forcing you to do the things you're bad 65 at, over and over again. First the stakes are low: building little 66 one-off thingamajigs and prototypes. And then you're thrown directly in 67 the fire and made to combine those little skills you didn't even realize 68 you were learning to make something real. We did that three times: 69 carving and constructing an [automaton] from foam core, abusing [Figma] 70 to make a functional digital [vending machine], and the final open-ended 71 project that ultimately coalesced into [Roll Call]. I am grateful to 72 Patrick Fenton, who made this a comfortable place to grow, and to Vivek 73 for pushing me through the course when I needed an extra shove and 74 making building things a total blast. Also I sort of learned to draw: 75 76  78 79 CS 148 was another fun class—I took this one at Naama's behest, and 80 found the [final project] in particular a good opportunity to implement 81 the techniques for making that I had picked up in DESIGN 11. The class 82 was scheduled at the same time as DESIGN 11, so I never actually 83 attended a lecture, but I'm theoretically a fan of the professor because 84 he has two Oscars for inventing the math behind CGI and was a 85 [professional bodybuilder] in his youth (scroll to the bottom of that 86 link). It had been a long time since I [worked with Blender], so it was 87 fun to get back at it! I felt a lot more confident building things 88 independently this time around, which I would attribute to my growth in 89 many contributing areas and skillsets—quite satisfying. 90 91 This quarter lacked a structured avenue for me to engage with political 92 thought. Zionism and the Novel came close, and I certainly engage 93 seriously on a myriad of political issues in discussions with my 94 friends, but I still felt something of a void. All of which is to say 95 that I declared a PoliSci minor on the International Relations track, 96 which will hopefully keep me entertained in this respect going foreword. 97 They also gave me a funky shirt when I declared, which Design didn't, so 98 extra points to their department. 99 100 ### Personal 101 102 This was the quarter of Junch and the Sleepoverers. Odin and my 103 membership in both groups means that we technically won the quarter. 104 Every week was marked by me getting progressively more excited until I 105 actually arrived at Junch and then seven days of comedown until the next 106 one arrived. Our more ambitious schedule for this upcoming quarter is 107 going to be epic; I just hope Naama and Jordan can keep up. The 108 Sleepoverers were my people for these past few months. If I had 109 downtime, I was with Nageena, Lulu, and Daniel. What a squad we were—the 110 half of our contingent that are going off to Paris this upcoming quarter 111 will be dearly missed. 112 113 My roommate this year is no longer random: I'm living with Vivek! Who 114 would have thought that we would be living together, four years after we 115 first met each other and thought the other one was super weird. Our room 116 is a total blast. It really is as simple as Vivek told my dad: "we like 117 the same snacks." Here's to next quarter, when my morning classes might 118 finally force me to adopt his sleep schedule. 119 120 I've created some clean delineations above for the sake of the post, but 121 of course reality is much messier. Jack and Zach, besides rhyming, are 122 pillars of my existence here at Stanford. I look forward to more GSB 123 library study sessions and rapid costume creation, respectively. Adri, 124 Deit, Reis, Kato, and Bradley welcome me back to the Phi Psi house like 125 a returning champ every time. Sophia is a boundless source of creative 126 energy for activities and I am very sorry for spreading the false rumor 127 that she broke her leg playing laser tag. Vedant and Hasan show up all 128 the time in such unexpected places—I look forward to the next time I'm 129 summoned. Nate continues to outlift me in the gym, and Trun continues to 130 do things with computers that shock and surprise me. I am routinely 131 impressed by Daniel's FLiCKS. 132 133 ### Looking Forward (I Go Back to School Tomorrow) 134 135 This was a different quarter. I enjoyed it. This next quarter, I'm going 136 to build on the positive institutions that were seeded here—continuing 137 my perpetual search for *better* and *more*. Academically, I'm going 138 back to the basics with a lot of foundational requirements. I'm looking 139 forward to it. In the meantime, I'm going to go celebrate getting this 140 out on time. 141 142 [a lot]: @/reading/illusion-of-return.md 143 [my writing]: @/reading/waking-lions.md 144 [last spring]: @/posts/stanford-quarterly-reflection-03.md 145 [its way]: @/posts/marc-tarpenning-on-innovation.md 146 [some posts]: @/reading/rocket.md 147 [automaton]: https://youtu.be/sOnKN3TLwJ0 148 [Figma]: https://www.figma.com 149 [vending machine]: https://youtu.be/aMlIcQ35QbA 150 [roll call]: @/projects/roll-call/index.md 151 [final project]: @/projects/baymax-memory-lane/index.md 152 [professional bodybuilder]: https://physbam.stanford.edu/~fedkiw/ 153 [worked with blender]: @/posts/i-wrote-this-two/index.md#making-a-doughnut-in-blender