now
year-to-year
Last updated: Q3 2024
I’m an undergrad now, studying philosophy at UC Berkeley.
I started at Brandeis University for a year, then took a year off to organize Manifest, OPTIC, and more — you can read more about my work here. They were really cool projects, and I worked harder on them than anything else in my life. Consequently, I’m incredibly proud of them, more than anything else in my life. I also applied to transfer to a few universities; I was accepted to UC Berkeley, and started classes in August 2024.
During that year off, though, I was travelling at breakneck speeds — spending an average of about a week at any one place before moving on. I spent some time in Europe and the UK, and the rest was mostly split between Boston, the SF Bay Area, and Los Angeles, as well as a few short stints New York City, New Hampshire, Miami, and drives up and down the coast of California.
I started a blog, on which I write about the brass tacks: things you’re allowed to do in university, impact markets, and quotes I’ve collected, among other sundry things.
quarter-to-quarter
Last updated: April 20, 2025
# Past
Much of my professional life in the last few months has been characterized by needing to say “no” to opportunities that came my way; by saying “no” to some of them; and by not saying “no” to them quickly enough. I’m really not used to it. The result of this failure was the splitting and breaking of my focus with no project as the top idea in my mind.
Anyway, here’s what I’ve been up to in the last few months:
accidentally got substantially better grades in my first semester at Berkeley than I intended. I’m slightly concerned that I invested too much in my classes relative to the other ways I could’ve spent my cycles, but I think it’s more likely that I simply got lucky.
doing (some of) my schoolwork for my classes in 2nd semester. I started out taking some classes on: later Wittgenstein (on the Philosophical Investigations), philosophy of science, a required “philosophical methods” class, and a student-taught course on poker. More recently, I've dropped down to the last two of those classes.
strategy & operations at Arbor: a team of people curious about markets, pedagogy, and game design. I decided against cofounding the company with Ricki & Ross, and I also decided against working there as an employee — at least not in the short term.
advising & helping the festival season: Manifest/LessOnline/summer camp. Come join — May 30 - June 8, in Berkeley CA :)
spending a short bit of time working with Nora Amman on the Guaranteed Safe AI Summit, among other projects. I subsequently decided not to work closely with her — at least not in the short term.
spending a non-overlapping different short bit of time working for the Future of Life Foundation on the AI for Epistemics workshop
working at EAG Bay Area
publishing a post describing some mistakes I notice inexperienced event organizers make. I'm quite proud of this one!
starting a home for my writing that looks more like sketches & drafts than finished works. I make no promises about what goes in, what comes out, or what lives inside — here’s where I wrote more of my thoughts on the meta level, and here's where I wrote my thoughts on the meta level.
Personal updates:
Spent dead week in LA with Chris, but all I did was learn linear algebra, Ancient philosophy, and first-order logic. Not too much “fun” or “hanging out.”
Travelled to Boston for Christmas; then to Mammoth Mountain with some friends to ski through New Years.
I turned 21! I spent the day of my birthday at Taco Tuesday, and celebrated the weekend prior by skiing with friends.
Spent a lot less time with Anki. I’ve continued the practice, but have spent substantially less time reviewing, and at one point hit my all-time low of adding cards. I think this was downstream of trying too hard to force my Anki practice to fit into classes I didn’t like, rather than letting Anki remain in the category of “learning cool things.” I went through some of the process of forgiveness & on-moving — which itself was pretty interesting for me. It was also a useful space for me to start using Anki more creatively.
Travelled to NYC for a week to work in-person with Ricki Heicklen. I was shomer shabbas for the first time — no elevators, no lightswitches, no buying things — with Ricki’s modern orthodox friends.
I’ve continued weightlifting pretty regularly (2-5x/week).
# Next
What does Saul want?
I'm not sure. Over the next few months, I'll be spending my time becoming more sure.
There are many possible versions of the world; which ones do I want to inhabit?
There are many possible versions of Saul; which ones do I want to inhabit?
What values do I want to lean into? Which do I want to lean away from?
What outcomes do I want to happen? Which do I want to avoid?
And so on. Many of these are downstream of questions like “what do I care about?” or “what do I burn for?” There are also procedural questions that I remain pretty puzzled about. I have a lot of thoughts here, and I’m… well, still figuring out how & whether to share them.
Anyway, I'll be doing a lot of writing, thinking, talking, listening, reflecting, [censored], [censored], etc. If you happen to know what I want, please drop me a line.
Physically:
Early May, I'll be going to LA for a week or three.
After that, back in the Bay for the festival season (LessOnline/summer camp/Manifest).
I’m going to Taiwan end of June/early July to visit with friends, and I'll maybe also spend some time in Japan afterward.
More broadly over the summer, I’d like to spend a week or so in each of Boston and St Louis, with family, and Seattle, with Blake — and the rest of the time bouncing between the Bay Area & Los Angeles.
# Reading
A few of my favorite reads over the last few months:
Oh, I also look forward to reading "There Is No Antimemetics Division" — I've heard a lot of good things about it. Though to be quite honest, it feels a little derivative? Like it's been done before?