Why you should be a little bit stupid and a little bit lazy

When I was at Johns Hopkins, Steve Wilson, one of my favorite mathematics professors, liked to say “if you want the best solution to a tough math problem, give it to your laziest friend”. He would often follow up and say “you know, the best mathematicians are a little bit stupid and a little bit lazy”.

As a student, I’d often chuckle hearing this. My high school and college friends often described me as being a little bit lazy. I wanted to maximize how much I learned, but realized learning didn’t perfectly correlate to performance in courses. As a result,... » Continue reading

Reflections on rapid learning of Spanish

Two years ago, I spent my winter break living in Kibbutz Neot Semedar, a kibbutz in the Negev of Israel. One day I was tasked to design the electrical circuits with Dan, an Israeli-Argentinian 22 year engineer who recently finished his military service. One that day, something clicked. I took Spanish courses years ago, but always treated it as a class rather than a language. I never understood or could speak a thing. Dan had started teaching me Spanish from the perspective of a Hebrew speaker. He asked why I had an American accent in my Spanish given that... » Continue reading