What actually worked

Things I would think would work: What actually worked:

On getting nerdswiped

I used to often worry about the fact that I was never really focused on a research problem. I would hear about researchers making amazing discoveries after single-mindedly pursuing their goal for months and years, and I would often think that that would never be me. Instead of focusing on one thing, I would pursue

The network effects in human behavior

Actions come before thoughts. I make coffee for my roommate everyday. It felt really awkward at first, as I don’t really have a lifelong habit of cooking for others. In fact, I felt a strong revulsion at first. I didn’t really have to do it. It’s not like anyone else was making coffee for me.

Love and p-hacking

The following is a real conversation I had with a fellow graduate student (name and identity appropriately changed). I knew that our relationship was doomed, and we were only being self-destructive by continuing it behind everyone’s back. However, my phone was once out of battery, and I was stranded in the middle of the city.

Types of desires

A lot of the online literature about narcissists says that narcissists don’t really have desires. They are scared to have desires, because they will then have to work towards those achieving them, and then face the possibility of failure. Consequently, narcissists want to attain their wishes of wealth, fame, etc by accident. The analogue of

The escape velocity of Jupiter

Rahul Gandhi, universally recognized as the village idiot of Indian politics, once, somehow, used the phrase “the escape velocity of Jupiter” in a political speech. I’m quoting from the speech below: The escape velocity for earth is 11.2 km/sec while that of Jupiter is 60 km/sec. In India we have the concept of caste. There

Understanding Roe vs Wade

What does Roe vs Wade say? It says that the Supreme Court does not have the power to enforce the right to abortion. It is not a part of the Constitution of the United States (like the right to bear arms, etc), and the job of amending the Constitution is that of elected lawmakers and

Suboptimal naming conventions

Music Like everybody else with functional ears, I love the Beatles. Surely, the dizzying heights of their universal fandom preclude any exhortations of their greatness from me. However, something that has always struck me was their rather pedestrian name. Beatles. They referenced perhaps one of the more unremarkable insects found everywhere, and then changed one

On the Depp-Heard trial

Edit: Read this much superior article that uses Game Theory to allocate blame between Heard and Depp. Like the rest of the internet, I would also like to offer my fairly useless and inconsequential opinion on the trial. Amber Heard effectively “lost” her case today. Although both parties have been fined millions of dollars, Heard

Anti-inspiration

I turned 30 a few hours back. This is the proverbial birthday post. Last week was was one of the more rewarding weeks of my professional life. However, all I could feel was a deep existential crisis. Did it really matter? Wasn’t I getting too old for academic accolades? And to be sure, my family