Halftime Highlights 🏈
Fall 2024 Reflections
Hello from the wicked smaaaht city of Boston! We just crushed Harvard in my last college football game and I can’t help but feel a tang of melancholy. I am officially halfway through senior year. As to post-grad, I’m thinking that I want to:
1. find a city that whispers to me, and
2. front-load risk/adventure/dream-chasing, while building a solid foundation for the future 🏃🏻♀️.
If you have any advice for what to do when the starting pistol goes off after Commencement, LMK by replying to this email :).
In the meantime, here’s what I’ve been up to this fall. The main update is that I finally watched Lord of the Rings and understand all the tech references (cough, cough — Durin, Palantir, and Anduril). After a trip to DC, I’ve also became obsessed with ENERGY. Everybody is thinking about AI but it’s critical we also think about how to power it … One of my favourite resources is the work of the Special Competitive Studies Project, a tech and national security think tank.
Also, with another revolution around the sun (and perhaps too many flights around the world), I updated some old pieces of writing:
If I Had a Gallery, a running list of my favourite museum artwork
Thanks for being a part of my life!!! Warm wishes for the winter ahead!
Ula
Hosted a concert for 450 people at the NYC Kaufman Music Center!
"How is it that a gifted artist like you should stoop so low as to become a politician?"
Easily filled Madison Square Garden with 20,000 fans. Built the iconic arch in Washington Square Park. Featured in a Dr. Seuss book. Close friend to multiple U.S. presidents. Supplied California wineries with his own grapes. Polish Prime Minister. And yes—he signed the Treaty of Versailles . . .
Ladies and gentlemen, Ignacy Paderewski (1860-1941) is one of the most extraordinary figures in Polish history. A famous pianist for whom whole streets were closed, I admire him most for his undying love for his homeland and consistent effort to fight for its freedom, even from abroad. In November, we honored his legacy with a documentary screening and performances by world-class musicians. Delegates from the Polish Embassy, Consulate, and UN joined in to celebrate music, joy, and reflection amidst our busy lives. I hope we made you proud, Maestro!
Thanksgiving at a Nuclear Power Plant 🦃
My senior thesis is on energy infrastructure for data centers, so I’ve visited both the largest plant in the US in GA and our local CT one (psst - it included an FBI training site)! Tour insights here.
Brief Atlanta field notes here—quirky city despite its rather corporate reputation. (Log in to unravel the whole thread!)
I visited the Carter Library just before the President’s passing and was struck by its archival treasures. Even a single speech draft revealed subtle strategic nuances leading to pivotal 70s headlines and the world as we know it.
Afterwards, my friend’s family hosted me for a beautiful Thanksgiving celebration. It was right out of a Norman Rockwell painting! I sincerely hope my home will one day be a similarly warm rest-spot for weary travellers. (Life hack—you can seriously level up by learning from your parents and grandparents. Time is better spent sharing generational wisdom/recipes than on political bickering as glorified by SNL.)
DC’s “It Girl” Moment ✨
I used to think the most interesting people flew AUS-SFO or LAX-SFO. But with fixing the country through gov work back in vogue, I’m now betting on IAD-SFO. Have there been other administrations that brought this much talent from Silicon Valley into the fold?
DC and SF are at a unique intersection right now because AI is the first major breakthrough technology not born in the military. The gov has been forced into a reactive posture, leaning on private sector dialogues and Track 2 efforts to monitor developments. There’s even a special hotline companies can call when their inventions go haywire or approach AGI . . .
Attended a conference headlined by the Dept. of Energy and Dept. of Commerce. Policy insights linked here—48 Hours as a DC Insider: Racing to Give AI the Energy It Needs.
Learned more about our National Labs and Advanced Research Projects Agency model (ex: ARPA-E), an innovation mechanism for inventions that are too early to be backed by VC/commercialized.
Good notes on institutional structures and operations research.
Became a Röpke-Wojtyła Fellow writing on responsible entrepreneurship and Catholic intellectual history. Made great friends—stay tuned for our adventures in Rome!
Unconventional take on urbanization and the population crisis.
DC is now the *place to be* for futurists, but shoutout to my OG TKS friends + Joe at Young Catholic Professionals for refusing to let me forget how special NY still is 🍎💗.
A Healthy Dose of Side Quests 🧪
Audited an art biz course! My after school job was folding auction paddles for a major auction house at my parents’ small printing shoppe. It was so moving to meet the CEO years later in class; we chatted about how he rose through the ranks from being a delivery boy.
After studying last summer at FAMU (a Czech film school), I put my skills into action and helped a friend with his horror movie 🧛. Bloody brillint, innit?
Marched proudly down Manhattan’s 5th Ave. for the Pulaski Day Parade!
Christmas in Fa-la-london 🎄
Browsing the Royal Institute of British Architects book shoppe showed me that despite tacking on my architecture major 3/4 into my uni experience, I can solidly recognize the evolution of various styles, key designers/developers, the lessons of history, and what hard problems people are working on now.
Hotels are boring and expensive. We stayed at a shepherd’s hut in Hertfordshire, a houseboat in Hackney, and a chic co-living/digital nomad cooperative in Primrose Hill!
Visited Oxford for exactly 5 mins. Back for grad school 🤔 ?!