Hi friends and strangers,
I had so much fun writing this blog over the last 4 years. I enjoyed sharing what I learned with you, and I learned even more from your thoughtful comments.
However, as I reluctantly accept my responsibilities as an adult, I can no longer write a post every day. My long-form writing will be posted on huyenchip.com and my fragments of thoughts will be posted on Twitter (@chipro).
Thank you so much for your continuing support!
I was walking home from work today when I saw a man listening to what looked like a stethoscope, except that the earpieces were on the ground instead of someone’s chest. There was water spilling from the ground around him. Continue reading “[Day 876] I’m a street doctor”
I didn’t want to watch Crazy Rich Asians. I tried to read the first book but gave up after a few chapters because it was obnoxious. It is filled with descriptions about how rich rich people are. What am I supposed to learn from that?
I also hated it that the first time Asians are represented on the big screen, it’s about the crazy rich. I can’t relate to them. Where are all my crazy poor, hardworking, discount-hunting Asian homies at? Continue reading “[Day 836] Crazy poor Asians”
I have recently deactivated my Facebook because I found it distracting. The problem with not being on Facebook is that people don’t believe you’re not on Facebook. Today, a new friend asked if he could add me on Facebook. I said I wasn’t on Facebook, and he gave me the disappointed look that says: “Sure, if you don’t want to be my friend on Facebook, just say so.” Sad. Continue reading “[Day 809] The problem with not being on Facebook”
1. For the first time in my life, I invested in a nice set of sheets and expensive pillows. I used to go to IKEA and buy the cheapest thing that didn’t repulse me, so this leap of faith made me feel very adult.
2. I promised to watch a rugby game with Dylan 3 years ago, and today, I finally fulfilled it. It was my luck with it was Rugby World Cup Sevens — a version of Rugby played with only 7 players on each team, with each half lasting 7 minutes. Continue reading “[Day 804] Adult things to do”
Recently, I’ve taken to introducing myself as a writer. Occasionally, I receive a response along the lines of: “But aren’t you the person teaching the TensorFlow class?” or “But didn’t I see you in that CS class?” and I was always confused: “Why should being a writer stop me from being interested in CS?”
This morning, I went for brunch with a bunch of people I didn’t know. A man in his fifties, after hearing that I’m a writer, asked: “How are you supporting yourself financially?” Continue reading “[Day 803] How do writers make money?”
Stanford sent me an email about “intent to bill” for damages in the room I used to stay. They must have been confused because when I moved out of that room almost 4 months ago, they came to clean/inspect and everything was fine. Then somebody else moved into my room right after that and stayed until now-ish.
As I wrote back, I felt an intense desire to end my email with “Much love”. Continue reading “[Day 800] A thought experiment”
Everyone who’s passed through my life leaves me with a song. It was never meant for me, but it doesn’t mean I can’t feel it and sing along.
Sophia the robot visited Vietnam today and VnExpress asked me to write an op-ed about what it means to be human. In the article, I mentioned the program that Andrej Karpathy wrote that generated Shakespeare-sounding text.
I didn’t think much of it until my editor texted me: “Is Andrej Karpathy human?”
I was like: “I guess.”
She was disappointed and took that example out of my article.
The Lyft driver picked me up from work today and, gesturing at the spaceship-like building behind me, asked: “Do you work at NVIDIA?” I said yes. He said: “Wow.”
He told me that 8 years ago, his wife got offers from both Qualcomm and NVIDIA. She chose Qualcomm because she didn’t want to work for a tiny company that only made gaming chips. “Then her Qualcomm stocks went straight down,” he said. “If she had taken the NVIDIA offer, we’d have been retired by now.”
Anyone could have said the same thing about buying Bitcoin, investing in Facebook, buying a house in Mountain View, or a million other things now that we have the benefit of hindsight. We like to think that we came so close to an opportunity because we’re special, but the truth is that we’re just short-sighted.
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