Broad Scope
Jeremi moves into a hacker house; Luca learns something new
Welcome back to Jeremi and Luca’s Newsletter, an update every Sunday from two friends connected by a relentless desire to learn.
Jeremi: of Ideas
For the last week, I’ve been living in Berkeley in a 14-bedroom hacker house.
The house is a mix of researchers, interns, and entrepreneurs. The goal is to bring this group under one roof to foster new ideas, work together, and increase serendipity.
This has been my experience so far.
First of all: I really like my housemates. There’s a mix of people in very similar fields as me (researching Machine Learning and Reinforcement Learning) and people in very different fields than me (String Theory and Condensed Matter Physics). We talk about spirituality in Western culture, debate the merits of a controversial startup that uses AI to help you cheat, and discuss whether there’s a market for GPUs to be traded as futures.
A lot of us are interested in reading research papers as a way to explore and build our knowledge base in Machine Learning. We brought up the idea of a reading group Monday night. Within ten minutes, we had decided on a paper and agreed to read it before our first meeting on Wednesday.
I appreciate the bias towards action, and I can feel how living in this environment is letting me take advantage of the open time I have this summer.
Part of why I’m here is because I want to become more involved in the tech/startup scene in the Bay. I’m trying to meet people and go to lots of events. This has meant a significant chunk of time commuting into San Francisco: going to lunch meetups, hackathons, and touring robotics startups.
At lunch, I met someone who is trying to recreate the world fair. He’s trying to raise money from high-net-worth individuals to fund a large scale, year long fair. He asked “what would you do with ‘f-you’ money, if you had it?” I said I would build a self-sustaining school on an island. Another person at the lunch said they would build ten foundries to manufacture lithium-ion batteries.
Thursday, there was a demo day by some of the residents of other hacker houses in the area. We saw people pitch drone defense startups, job platforms for Latin American countries, and t-shirts with wearable tech that analyzes back pain and offers personalized recommendations.
It’s been an immersive experience so far. Each day flies by, but the week has felt like a lifetime. I’m appreciating the conversations, the ideas, and the people I’m interacting with. It’s an intellectually stimulating environment. I want to make the most of it!
Luca: of Work
One thing about my job this summer is that its scope is extremely flexible. Some days I’ll be working on hiring, other days talking to customers and users. Testing our software, working on integrations/partnerships, product research, etc.
This week, we were pushing toward a demo with a key design partner. Almost every potential customer’s #1 question has to do with migrating their data from their existing software to ours. So part of last week’s push was ensuring that this private jet charter operator’s data was well-represented in our system.
This could have happened in one of two ways: either manual entry in our software or automatic data seeding using a Python script and SQL queries.
The problem with the manual option is that I just wasn’t going to do it; it would have taken too much time, and there would have been zero learning curve. Doing it automatically meant I could learn more and get the task done faster.
Now, I did receive substantial help, especially from one of our engineers, Hudson, who’s also my roommate. He was in SF this week for YC’s AI Startup School (heard from Sam Altman, Elon Musk, Satya Nadella) and met Jeremi on Wednesday.
But the point is that I was able to learn a ton about database design, manipulation, seeding, and more, all in a role at this startup that barely has a title. And so I’m confident that this is the right place to be for the learning alone, not to mention the people, city, events, exposure, and so on…
A few other fun things from the week:
Carson, a friend from the camp I grew up going to in Maine, is also working in New York this summer, and he stayed with me this week—fun running, gyming, cooking, and hanging out together.
Carson and I got dinner with a few other camp guys who are here for jobs ranging from videography to investment banking to music partnerships.
Went to “Tech Pickleball” with one of my Dad’s colleagues, Alejandro. Free bagels and coffee, cool new paddle, and super interesting people (like a Google AI alum who founded a startup that estimates calories based on photos).
Luke, my Berkeley housemate, is visiting this weekend from his internship at CarMax in Richmond, VA. It’s been nice having so much company!
Jeremi and Luca, glad you’re both having such stimulating summers with so many learning opportunities!
The hacker house sounds fascinating !! Just read about one in India.