This was originally posted on blogger.

Thank god it’s not Christmas. As a cram school teacher, nothing is worse than the back-to-back holidays of Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. In public schools here, they don’t celebrate any of those (the Chinese holidays are more sensibly spread out throughout the year). The consequence is that cram schools, and foreigners like me, end up being the representatives. It makes me delighted not to hear “Jingle Bells” in the PXMart and wonder how my students will do it when they’re caroling. Hats off to my colleague, Teacher Phil, for directing a stellar matinee performance of A Christmas Carol with his class of 2nd graders.

Raj Chetty comes to mind. His research, published a couple years ago, is famous for overmining the importance of kindergarten teachers. According to his data, an experienced kindergarten teacher in the US makes their students’ adult salaries raise by $1,000 per kid. What do you learn in kindergarten? Nothing concrete – things more like life skills, problem solving, and emotional regulation. Gives a little bit more meaning to what I’m doing as I’m shouting new English words at my youngest students.

A neat look at the news. Powered by an LLM, of course.

No place like Kaohsiung. I went to Taipei to show my brother around Taiwan. We arrived in Kaohsiung and I felt at home right away. There’s no place like it. The vastness of Taipei is exhausting to navigate, and so is the density/intensity of the people. My brother didn’t like the crowdedness, and in hindsight, I don’t either.

A whacky website for ping pong rackets. This store in Taipei had the best deals on ping pong rackets. I went there in person and got my racket and rubbers for half the price I believe I’d get anywhere else. I asked and the store guy said the prices are the same online, but Jesus, I mean look at this website! No wonder their ping pong deals are a well-coveted secret.

Linux vs. Windows and conformity. If it was up to me the world standard operating system for budget would be Linux, not Windows. Why? It’s faster, doesn’t have bloatware/spyware, and more easily customizable for your purposes. There’s also political reasons – it’s open-source and not controlled by the monopoly that is Microsoft. But I’m sadly typing on this on Windows. Why? Well, I worked one summer for a company remotely, and they sent me a Windows laptop. As an intern, I’m not about to wipe the OS and put Linux on it, so I acclimatized, even though I didn’t like it. But it got hard to switch back and forth between my personal Linux computer and the work Windows computer. So when I got a new personal computer, I didn’t bother putting Linux on it, even though it would be superior. That said, neither option is bad – I’ve gotten used to the Windows shortcuts, and most of what I do on my computer is through a web browser, anyways. That said, the power of inertia is real.

How to Believe in Yourself on Hidden Brain. I listened to this podcast about how people can achieve their aspirations even if they were stuck at some point in life. The secret? Sometimes, going forward means taking a step back and finding a slightly different direction. This metaphor reminds me of watching Olympic rock climbing, a fascinating example of seeing how people problem solve under pressure. The other thing mentioned in the podcast is that sometimes, doing irrelevant, leisure activities can let ideas germinate in the back of your mind; or, you might even build your confidence playing something like Words with Friends or Settlers of Catan that you feel newly motivated to confront other challenges ahead of you. In conclusion, check out the podcast – I wouldn’t write about it if it wasn’t worth the listen.

A neat look at the news. Powered by an LLM, of course.