Intentionality
Jeremi discusses using free time purposefully; Luca describes recent conversations in D.C.
Welcome back to Jeremi and Luca’s Newsletter, a weekly update brought to you by two friends on opposite ends of the country, connected by a relentless desire to learn.
The topics may seem random and disjointed (they are), but would it be fun otherwise? Either way, we promise each issue will be filled with insights, learnings, and updates, in what we hope is a good way to stay connected to friends and family.
In this tenth installment, enjoy Luca’s description of recent conversations in D.C. and Jeremi’s plan to maintain momentum through the remainder of his summer.
Luca: On Conversations
Monday through Wednesday of this week was mostly comprised of coffee chats, foreign policy events, internship work, and morning runs.
At the Department of Commerce, my “hit rate” on coffee chat requests has been 100 percent—everyone I’ve asked to meet has said yes. This is very much a product of Washington culture: a willingness to talk with and help others.
This week, I sat down with the Chief of Staff to the Deputy Secretary, a policy advisor to the Deputy Secretary, and the Senior Advisor to the Secretary for Critical and Emerging Technologies.
Besides engaging in conversations about topics like politics and artificial intelligence, these coffee chats also deepened my understanding that no two career paths are the same. After various experiences in the private sector, law, and Silicon Valley, it was the call to service—not personal interest itself—that led these people to government.
People here aren’t just willing to meet; they’re also eager to learn. Take Peter, an international economist at the Department of Commerce, for example.
Peter and I met at SelectUSA, the investment summit I attended (and wrote about) earlier this summer. After realizing we were frequently seeing each other at various events around town, we began sharing information on which events to attend together.
This week’s events included a panel on U.S.-Japan economic security cooperation, a conversation with the Ambassador of Finland to the U.S. on NATO and the future of trans-Atlantic security, and a visit to the Belgian Ambassador’s residence for a meet-and-greet with him.
This exemplifies another characteristic I appreciate about Washington: people are very aware that part of their work is continuous learning. I’m a sophomore in college, and Peter is a seasoned economist focused on Latin America. But we’re both learners at our core.
***
On Wednesday evening, I packed my bags and boarded a roundabout but extremely low-cost Delta flight from D.C. to Atlanta, then to Green Bay, Wisconsin. After a night in Green Bay and an hour-long drive past cornfields, I arrived in Oshkosh on Thursday morning for EAA AirVenture.
More on that next week.
Jeremi: On Momentum
Too much free time is poisoned fruit.
This is something I’ve come to believe after several idealistic (yet ultimately foolish) plans to do everything.
Over the past few years, I’ve had a lot of random ideas that I’m interested in. I wanted to write, compose more piano, or learn about quantum computing! What gets in the way of these ambitions, as I would tell myself, is “not having enough time.”
School left little time for these ambitions. Throughout the fall and spring, I would daydream about all the things I could do over the summer when I had absolutely no constraints.
What happened over those summers? I did less than half of what I promised myself. It’s like the wind just immediately disappeared from my sails—it was befuddling.
For all the time that school and work took up, it kept me moving. I had deadlines to hit, meetings to go to. These forcing functions kept me busy and made it easier for me to be consistent with hobbies and projects.
For example, triathlon practice. If I don’t have class, why bother going to practice at 6:30am? But when I start with practice at that time, I’m refreshed. I see that there’s a two-hour gap from 8am to 10am before class, and I’m motivated to use that time to work on something non-school-related.
This is why I’m so grateful to be interning at Lawrence Livermore. When I get off work, I know I have three hours before I should go to bed, and I’m motivated to use it. I’ll work on my ML project on the side, or go climbing, or go to discussion panels on VR! If I didn’t have this internship, I would’ve made less progress on all these domains despite having way more time.
Well, my internship is two weeks away from ending, but I have two months before school starts up. During my internship I’ve made a list of all these topics I want to learn when I have more time—things I was exposed to during this time but not able to go deep on.
If I’m not intentional, I know I won’t make it through this learning list. I got accustomed to the external motivation of a job, and it will be hard to transition to being entirely self-driven.
So, I’m going down to Santa Barbara early. I’m creating workshops for the Data Science club to teach in the fall. I’m helping a grad student out with their research project.
I’m doing these things because I want to and I’m excited about them, but also because I know I’m going to wake up energized and excited to work on them, and that will bleed into the other areas of my life.
Luca and Jeremi, once again, I am so moved by your field reports! Luca, it is very gratifying to hear you describe your contacts in D.C. as collaborative in nature - people want to share their learning and be helpful to those newly arrived on the scene - yay! Jeremi, methinks you are a different order of hunan bean - to be so productive and strategic in your thinking. As a goldennaire, that feels quite exotic to me! The mind and imagination become refreshed with down time so please remember to enjoy a generous share of R&R (which I believe you do with your sports) These sharings are so enjoyable! Thank you!
Funny how momentum (and inertia) are self reinforcing, and learning is ageless