I Would Have Graduated This Year
One random thing I’ve been thinking about is how if I had gone to the University of Waterloo, I would have graduated this year. Pretty crazy to think about.
I’m quite happy with how things worked out. I’m working on a project that I’m very passionate about, that I think has the potential to be very impactful. This is, I think, pretty rare in the world.
And even if this particular project were to fail, I’ve had to reinvent myself many times in the past, and I feel confident I could do it again.
Yet, I still feel like there’s a lot more I need to figure out with my life. I’m 22, and I feel increasingly like time is passing faster and faster. This scares me a lot.
A few episodes have helped me focus my mind.
First, I look back fondly at the time I spent at the many coliving houses I’ve stayed at. In particular the Edyfi house in Utah, and the houses for the 2 summers I’ve spent in San Francisco.
These days, I’m relatively isolated in suburban Mississauga. This is probably a good thing for my work, but I do feel like I’m missing something to life.
I do get brief respites from this isolation when I travel to other cities and catch up with friends. For example this year I went to Boston, Portland, Los Angeles, and earlier this month I went to a retreat with friends in San Francisco.
I think the default way to solve this is by moving back to San Francisco. There’s a few hurdles in the way (immigration, finances). But I think as I make progress on the startup, these barriers will fade away.
Second, not many of you guys might know this, but I used to coach gymnastics in high-school, and being a coach was one of the happiest points in my life. I taught kids aged 4-14 at a recreational and competitive level.
I put a ton of energy into understanding how the kids thought to get them excited to improve. One of my favourite philosophies was to treat the kids as equals, in the sense that you involve them in making decisions. Looking back I realize that I loved being a teacher.
I think this is in part why I started the Feynman Mafia, a group for learning math and physics, and also why I was drawn to SPARC and WARP as a junior counselor last year, two math and rationality camps for high-schoolers I helped run.
These days though I get very few of these interactions. I’d like to have more, but I’m not really sure how best to solve this.
The third story is I think the most interesting. Two close friends of mine that I met at the previously mentioned coliving house in Utah recently announced that they’re having a baby girl.
The context on this couple is that they we married at 18 years old, and are having their first kid at 23. Both of them are super smart, and especially I think in the way they choose to live their lives.
For one thing, they were married a lot younger than what the average is today. I think this is a hugely positive thing. I can’t replicate it exactly, given that I’m only 1 year younger then them, but I think marrying earlier rather than later is a great.
Another thing is that they both engage with religion. I wouldn’t say I’m particularly religious, but I can’t help but feel that I’m missing out on an important aspect of life. I mean, religion has been around for tens of thousands of years. Surely it serves an important purpose.
I bring this third story up because ever since I’ve solved the “what do I want to work on” problem, I’m thinking more about these other questions. I stayed in Portland earlier this year with these two friends, and I feel they’ve provided me with an important perspective on life. I’m very grateful to be their friends.
Anyways, the reason I wrote this post is to get these ideas out, and be more clear about what are the next steps I want to take in my life. The first step in solving a problem is identifying it, so here I am.
Best,
Davide