-
Facts from ECB CH2, Chemical Components of Cells
| 240 wordsHere are facts I found interesting from the second chapter of Essential Cell Biology. Chemical Bonds C, H, N, and O constitute 96% of any organism’s weight. Typical covalent bonds are stronger than thermal energies by a factor of 100. In living organisms, covalent bonds are only broken when in...
-
Transitioning Away From Veganism
| 1034 wordsAbout 6 months ago, I decided that in 2022 I would transition away from being strictly vegan into a flexible form of vegetarianism (where I put reasonable effort towards avoiding eggs and purchasing ethical egg offsets.) The reason there is a 6 month gap in the decision is because I...
-
Facts from Essential Cell Biology Chapter 1, Cells: The Fundamental Units of Life
| 717 wordsHere are facts that I found interesting from the first chapter of Essential Cell Biology. Unity and Diversity of Cells Cells sizes vary from a few micrometers (Lactobacillus) to 1 millimeter (frog egg). Human brain nerve cells are 10,000x longer than they are thick. Evolution offers a compelling explanation for...
-
Insights from Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance
| 919 wordsGawande’s Better is a well-written reflection on his career as a surgeon. Here are some things I learned (comments/caveats in brackets): Hospitals do a lot of work to try to make sure people don’t get infected while at the hospital. Despite this, hospital infection rates are very high [internet says...
-
Notes On SMILE Eye Surgery
| 610 wordsYesterday, I got SMILE corrective vision surgery. I found the experience interesting for a variety of ways. Here are some notes: You can see immediately after surgery. It looks like you’re looking through a grey film. I was able to order an Uber immediately after surgery with little problem (I...
-
Things That Should Be Destroyed
| 137 wordsAn incomplete list: The programming in my water boiler that sings a song when the water is done boiling. The LED in my usb charger (I did actually destroy this one personally). Space heaters that have LED panels that can’t be turned off. Whiteboard markers that don’t have any ink...
-
How To Be (Semi)-Fashionable
| 798 words“It is not a complex problem to appear nice to people! You identify the most popular targets in each of your classes, learn what they value about themselves, and give them a minimum of three relevant compliments each week. So long as they think you are agreeable, others will follow...
-
Retrospective On My 2020 FHI Research Scholar Application
| 1997 wordsThis is a research statement I wrote when applying to be a research scholar at the Future of Humanity Institute in September of 2020. My opinions about which research questions/projects are promising has shifted a lot since then. I thought it might be interesting to people to see what I...
-
Owning Multiple Copies of Objects Can Reduce Attention Costs
| 339 wordsI own multiple copies of many objects so I have to spend less attention doing things like remembering to bring them places, actually bringing them places, charging them, plugging them into other objects, etc. Examples: Having two pairs of noise canceling headphones means that I don’t have to remember to...
-
Coase's Theorem Means The Customer Doesn't Have To Always Be Right
| 374 wordsSometimes, when I’m buying a good or service, the person selling me this good or service is rude to me. In the past I’ve thought this was pretty unreasonable because I was trying to pay them money for the thing they were trying to sell me, so shouldn’t they be...