Learning some humility from a technical interview

I had a brutal interview today for a tutoring job. Writing it up as a lesson to myself and others about under-preparation and overconfidence going into an interview with a test component.

It started nicely enough –resume questions from the president, who is an econ major, and some jovial joking with a Caltech engineering major who had worked at JPL. I bedazzled with my complicated one-sentence statement of my previous research and my more understandable explanation of what “non-redundant aperture masking with adaptive optics” really meant. I displayed a comfort level with the subjects I’d be expected to tutor (biology, chemistry, physics, calculus, pre-calculus) and even tied in my behavioral econ knowledge to indicate how I can relate to individuals from different disciplines and career aspirations.

I was anticipating a diagnostic test, which I had prepared for by taking a sample Physics B AP test. I did reasonably well, missing a couple questions concerning induction and the lensmaker equation (apparently I forgot the sign convention for the focal length, where it is positive if the lens is convex and negative if it is concave).

Just as I’m about to be asked some qualitative physics questions from a high school physics textbook, another tutor arrives. He is apparently a Caltech senior physics major, currently applying to grad schools. His engineering colleague, seeing the physicist arrive, decides to have him ask me some questions.

Hale's invitation

If you find yourself wandering and lost,
stop by
my corningware oubliette.
Bring me a touch
and I will share with you the loveliness,
the loneliness
of eternal sky

My favorite astropolitik story

Louis XI (1423-1483), the great Spider King of France, had a weakness for astrology. He kept a court astrologer whom he admired, until one day the man predicted that a lady of the court would die within eight days. When the prophecy came true, Louis was terrified, thinking that either the man had murdered the woman to prove his accuracy or that he was so versed in his science that his powers threatened Louis himself. In either case he had to be killed.

One evening Louis summoned the astrologer to his room, high in the castle. Before the man had arrived, the king told his servants that when he gave the signal they were to pick the astrologer up, carry him to the window, and hurl him to the ground, hundreds of feet below.

The astrologer soon arrived, but before giving the signal, Louis decided to ask him one last question: “You claim to understand astrology and to know the fate of others, so tell me what your fate will be and how long you have to live.”

“I shall die just three days before Your Majesty,” the astrologer replied. The king’s signal was never given. The man’s life was spared. The Spider King not only protected his astrologer for as long as he was alive, he lavished him with gifts and had him tended by the finest court doctors.

The astrologer survived Louis by several years, disproving his power of prophecy but proving his mastery of power.

-Robert Greene, The 48 Laws of Power

United Methodist Sermon on gay rights

(This is a sermon I have not yet given before a congregation. But I present it here, with the hope it may be of value to the congregation of friends, religious or not, I am privileged to know. -R)

The Lord be with you. (And also with you.)

Today’s story comes from the headline news. On Monday night, Anderson Cooper interviewed Andrew Shirvell, who is an assistant attorney general for the state of Michigan. Mr. Shirvell has created a blog, in which he singles out and attacks the student body president of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, a 21-year old openly gay man named Chris Armstrong. On his blog, titled “Chris Armstrong Watch”, Shirvell has called him a “radical homosexual activist”, a “racist, elitist, and liar”, and “Nazi-like”. Shirvell has also called him “Satan’s representative on the Student Assembly”, and depicted him with a multicolored peace flag on which appears a Nazi swastika. He attacked the reputation of Armstrong’s friends and family, and protested outside of his residence.

Kitchen table discussion on the drug cartels in Mexico

Today I had a kitchen table discussion with Mom and Roy about immigration. Lately, I’ve been trying to avoid these, mostly because I feel like there’s not much actual exchange of information and insight, but tons of entrenched positions. This discussion, however, was reasonably good and provided some interesting thoughts.


Some highlights:

I think one of the reasons why immigration has gotten A LOT harder to talk about is because it has been conflated with national security. Specifically, Americans are scared of the drug violence in Mexico. So I think that needs ot be tackled before immigration policy becomes politically tractable.

Why I wouldn't exist without anti-immigration laws

So I haven’t written about SB 1070 or really any other immigration policy. But I would like to highlight one case where anti-immigration laws were helpful, if you believe, as I do, that my existence is a Good Thing.

My grandfather, Masao, initially wanted to be a literature professor at the University of Tokyo. Throughout his life, he became a fairly accomplished haiku poet of some regard, and was a favored student of Kyoshi Takahama. A picture of him and Takahama appears in this post.

But his father, who was apparently aware of the prevailing sentiment in California politics, encouraged Masao to join him in the US while it was still permitted. So grandpa took a slow boat to California and became a farm laborer. My grandfather, Masao, was living in Pasadena, CA and, like many lonely bachelors, sought female companionship. So, he had his family in Japan find him a picture bride.