navigating new heights

9.29-10.5, week 20 in sf

alt: how i learned to stop worrying and love the balloon

Another catch-up post—still no manifesto.

updates

• SWE-Glu tackled Sasha Rush's phenomenal tensor puzzles this week. Attendance was low, possibly due to last week's subpar puzzles and my absence. For the code golf contingent: I solved all 21 puzzles in 686 characters.

• A friend's birthday celebration led me to my first (and probably last) hot air balloon ride. My misconceptions about balloon steering were swiftly deflated—directional movement is entirely controlled by changing altitude to catch opposing layers. I think I had believed that it would be possible to steer by heating opposite sides of the balloon or something, though that obviously does not hold up to inspection. The laissez-faire attitude towards finding somewhere to land was also a surprise.

  

  Takes a lot of air to reach the distinctive shape.

  

  Trees during golden hour.

• Despite being offered a free ticket, I did not go to OpenAI DevDay. Good quality-of-life improvements but nothing that will shake my loyalty to Claude. Someone should tell me if there was merch so that I can update my regret.

• I want to reach out to more people cold. If you share this desire then this is permission to reach out to me cold. Alexey Guzey said approximately the same thing so I sent him a question with the specificity of a Rorschach test. He told me it was too vague. I'll follow up any week now...

• Martian interviewed a promising candidate for lead MLE. As Sasha-from-the-future, I can report that he accepted the offer. Looking forward to having a cracked senior to learn from.

• I visited Founders, Inc (the comma in their name still bewilders me). I really enjoy spaces where people make things. Now pondering how to get regular access to such a space.

  

  I have no snarky comment. Maker spaces are cool.

• After dragging my feet for literal months, I finally accepted a full-time offer from Martian. I partook in salary negotiations and raised my offer by 19% (assuming fixed equity evaluation).

• Watched the new Joker movie with some friends. I initially suspected that people who live under rocks such as myself are not the target demographic, but research afterwards suggests that the filmmakers may have neglected to have any target demographic at all.

• I was invited on an impromptu road trip to see some fall foliage in Mammoth Lakes. One of our party members knows the Sierras intimately, having biked (!) there several times. While seeing the bright yellow aspens was cool, I have to give this one to Minnesota—we have a far wider variety of colors. I learned a bit of botany from the adventure, but I'm still not entirely sure why this is the case.

  

  Wow, yellow.

• I've been persuaded that I should be spending more money on transportation. Even I admit that spending 90 minutes getting home at odd hours probably doesn't make financial sense. I may write a follow-up to quantify exactly how penny-wise and time-foolish I've been. Waymo sparks joy.

• I need more social hobbies. I keep meeting cool people then not knowing how to get to know them better other than harassing them about shared interests. Social hobbies shall fill this gap; currently thinking hiking, spikeball, board games, and potentially cryptic sudoku. Open to suggestions.

Here is your chance to practice cold reach outs (warm ones are alright too)