S1E1: Pilot

(in more ways than one)

Welcome to the first installment of your new favorite weekly newsletter… brought to you by two friends embarking on a summer that, in our humble opinion, should be shared (and will be, but for now see our about page)!

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.

For now, enjoy a book spotlight from Jeremi and a semester recap from Luca.

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Jeremi: What I’ve Been Reading

I’ve recently picked up Think Again, by Adam Grant. He tells a story that I found wicked interesting.

These European researchers ran a study with more than 100 Italian entrepreneurs who had small businesses (no revenue generated). They were all taught to follow a standard process: create a strategy, build an MVP, interview customers, and then refine a prototype.

However, a small group of the entrepreneurs was given slightly different instructions. They were told to follow the exact same procedure, but instead think of themselves as scientists. Creating a strategy was “developing a hypothesis.” Building an MVP was “designing an experiment.” Interviewing customers was “collecting data.”

By the end of the study, the founders in the control group had generated an average of $300 in revenue from their businesses. The group who considered themselves scientists, on the other hand, generated an average of $14,000 in revenue.

Just by imagining themselves to be scientists, these founders were able to be more impartial and switch their strategy easily when the data warranted it. The other founders tended to stay committed to their original strategy.

I think this is a super interesting practice to apply in our lives, and I’m going to apply it quite literally. I’m going to visualize myself as a scientist—imagine myself with a white lab coat, a notepad, and a pencil, jotting down notes as I look at the data that presents itself—whether it is having uncomfortable discussions with friends (e.g. around politics), learning about a new technical topic, or making important decisions.

Just the simple act of visualization and intention can make us more open and unbiased… I believe. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Adam Grant’s Think Again (2021)

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Luca: Semester Recap

Freshman year is over and it flew by. By the numbers:

8 student organizations
7 changes of major/minor combination
9 classes, mostly large first-year seminars

A rocky start to the school year included a broken foot and recurring fevers, but my second semester was much healthier (and happier). 

Along with a few pilot friends, I helped get the Aviation Club up and running. In our first semester, a surprising 96 students and faculty joined. We’re excited to organize more events in the fall and make deals with flight schools for discounted instruction.

Other activities included consulting with a student group for an AI agent startup, continuing the trumpet in the UC Jazz Big Band, many weekends skiing in Tahoe (and a week skiing in Courchevel with Jeremi), and playing intramural ultimate frisbee with dorm friends.

Classes were interesting, but I’m looking forward to smaller, more focused upper-division courses during future semesters. This semester, my favorite was an introductory data science course that taught various topics at the intersection of statistics, data, and computing. 

One of the final projects involved machine learning. We trained and tested our own simple classification models to determine whether certain movies, based on the counts of selected words, were horror or comedy.

This year, I realized how much I miss math and statistics; I want to challenge myself more and have a stronger foundation in quantitative topics. At the same time, I recognize my interest in public policy and economic theory, so I’m leaning toward the following combination of majors and minors (doable thanks to high school credits and requirement overlaps).

Majors: Economics; Operations Research and Management Science
Minors: Data Science; Public Policy

Ask me tomorrow and it may be completely different!

All that aside, summer break is in full gear. I kicked it off by finally getting back into the air for a flight over Berkeley. It’s a cool campus from above, and below. Summer plans coming in a future newsletter…

Berkeley from 2000ft above