2024 in hindsight

reflection
personal
Reflections on the year 2024: travels, readings, and future plans
Published

January 18, 2025

2024 in hindsight

Snapshots

  • went to farwest-nepal
  • graduated
  • wrote stuffs; consistently.
  • enrolled in a research position at cshl
  • moved to a new city; such a quiet neighborhood.
  • visited boston. kind of liked the vibe.
  • didn’t learn driving
  • was confused half of the time whether to pursue a graduate program in the future and confused about the type of work to contribute to the rest of the time.
    • well, def exaggerating at the expense of sounding poetic
  • went hiking to the upstate (breakneck ride, bull hill, and little excursions in cold spring village etc) ### findings
  • absolutely loved the filmography of Turkish film director Nuri Ceylan. overall, such subtleties of everyday life dissected into scenes–scenes so natural and gnawing and awe-inspiring. ==oh damn felt so seen and autopsied by the the wild pear tree.==
  • loved the ‘what we owe to the future’ by William MacAskill which expand on the contractualism put forward by T.M. Scanlon but in the intergenerational ( non-overlapping generations) context. will probably reread. Also enjoyed the Sum:forty tales from afterlives, letters to a young poet, joy of x, exhalation stories, and wuthering heights.
    • i did lost my bag in Boston that had books and other stuffs. life has not changed much without the bag and its belonging.
  • read works from Nepali literature too: BP Koirala’s Sumnima (tug of war bw spiritual and physical dimensions of human beings) and Bhupi Sherchan’s Ghumne Mech Mathi Andho Manchhe.
  • cancer is tough, so is neuroscience, so is AI. and the interestingness seem to evaporate with deeper exposure to current pursuits in the field? is it filtering mechanism/test implemented by a field by adapting a high barrier for entry, or a lack of personal commitment, or lack of understanding about the fundamentals of the field?

back to the future

  • pick a city
  • apply to grad programs
    • simultaneously apply to jobs, for u never know what kind of loser u can turn out to be
    • find a good professor who can teach you skills in academia and beyond
      • personality + lab values >> research papers
  • learn driving! oh, common!
  • explore new places ????
  • ŵritë and submit