decision paralysis but also,
recognizing in a finite lifespan I
get to pick a few things out of an
infinitude to savor is kinda neat
如果有桂花吃、白兰花闻，世界就好了。
current trajectory: physics > cosmology/particle > theoretical/computational
reads:
- Deniz Türker. The Accidental Palace: The Making of Yıldız in Nineteenth-Century Istanbul.
- The residence of the last Ottoman sultan before his empire’s fall.
- David Tong. “Lecture notes on Gauge Theory.”
- Every once in a while, I try to get a glimpse of some topic years beyond my current level of understanding. Two years ago it was general relativity, last summer it was inflationary cosmology, and last week it was gauge theory — basically, fields in which the concepts and equations nearly completely lose me. Even though I am not really ready to efficiently learn these topics, I think it’s helpful to have a somewhat tangible sense of the long road ahead. With this goal in mind, I began reading and promptly lost myself by the second chapter. I did manage to make a video out of it though.
- Matthew McQuinn. “The Evolution of the Intergalactic Medium.”
- When we try to picture the cosmos, we tend to only think about the shiny stuff — stars, galaxies, and very very hungry black holes. But stars cannot burn their hearts without cold hydrogen to collapse from, cannot coalesce into galaxies without dark matter to pull them together, and cannot shine as black holes after death without more gas and dust to feed on. The background medium, as it turns out, has as much tremendous importance to astronomy as the objects underneath the spotlights… “The stuff between all the universe’s bright lights.”
- Cade Metz et al. “Ego, Fear and Money: How the A.I. Fuse Was Lit”
- These people have strange sights for the future.