Journal for 2003 November 18

A curious weekend. Saturday I reconned myself to have accomplished a lot: the laundry, my shelter idea created, and some grading. Sunday I woke up feeling defeated for sleeping so late and spend the entire day in grading. I think what I value most in my accomplishments is a two-way split between generating new ideas and completing practicial change. I'm rarely interested in finishing ideas but will continue to enjoy them as long as there's more to think about, and working toward practical change without achieving practical results I find to be a drain. Perhaps I work best with exactly two things to do, one in each of those areas.

I feel like I've been grading constantly for the past two weeks, but Claudia embroils me in enough movies that it's no wonder I don't get much done. Claudia climbed into bed in the middle of the night Sunday (4 am?) and put on _Steal this Movie_, which I couldn't help but pay rapt attention to, even though I needed the sleep.

I have begun a new book experience: _How to Win Friends and Influence People_. I had not realized that it was such a lasting work and had not come from the money frenzy of the 90's (though maybe it came from the frenzy of the 20's). I'm excited just by reading the introduction-- I suspect cultishness but am excited nonetheless.

My other recent projects include generating three proposals for a new curriculum for Olin. The creativity farm, the humanist engineering camp, and the personal growth school. In addition, I mean to determine my dream classes for the dream curriculum, which currently seem to be an Artificial Intelligence Workshop, Human Social Dynamics, Philosophy of Engineering, Computer Architecture, and Systems Analysis.

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If you have any questions or comments that you want to email, feel free to contact me, jrising@ mit.edu.