Category Archives: Uncategorized

The big five tech firms, Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Google, known more commonly as FAANG, have a market capitalization of $5.6trn, almost a fifth of the S&P 500 Index. Naturally, regulation of such a behemoth of the American economy is a thorny issue because these big tech firms create jobs, spearhead American innovation, andContinue reading “Yet Another “Why Big Tech Needs Regulation””

Men Without Women by Haruki Murakami Rating: ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 8/10 I’ve only read one other book by Murakami, 1Q84, and both were equally hard to put down. The faint magical realism (I would hesitate even to call it that) that appears in his short stories sucks you into discussions about the relationships between men and women,Continue reading “Men Without Women Review”

Today I participated in the 2020 East Coast Datathon hosted by Citadel and CorrelationOne. The Datathon is an annual competition held by Citadel and CorrelationOne to find undergraduate and graduate students who would be a good fit at Citadel and Citadel Securities. You have to apply to even compete, and you have to complete anContinue reading “Winning the 2020 East Coast Datathon”

21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari Rating: ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 7/10 I both loved and hated this book, which makes this review difficult to write, but hopefully I’ll be able to share my mental struggle between the two effectively. I’ll start with why I hated the book. I like my books how IContinue reading “21 Lessons for the 21st Century Review”

The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan Rating: ★★★★★★★★★☆ 9/10 Eating is one of the most basic instincts of humankind, and serves as the foundation of entire cultures and religions. It is the common thread in complex tapestries of different cuisines around the world, and somehow, its art has beenContinue reading “The Omnivore’s Dilemma Review”

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie Rating: ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 8/10 This was a book that was really hard to put down. It’s a story with a simple plot, a handful of characters, and twists and turns that greatly influenced mystery novels for decades to come. This book is the apotheosis of my definition ofContinue reading “Murder on the Orient Express Review”

Rules of Civility by Amor Towles Rating: ★★★★★★★★★★ 10/10 This was the inaugural novel of the newest, hottest book club around, Maggot Habitat (Jessica, Hoang, Anne, and me). Having read Gentleman in Moscow before, I was familiar with Towles’ exquisite ability to immerse the reader in the setting. Every time I picked up the book,Continue reading “Rules of Civility Review”

This post was originally published on Quora on January 1st, 2019. Why Nations Fail by Daron Acemoglu Rating: ★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆ 5/10 The full title is Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty, and this verbose title reflects the repetitious, sometimes tedious nature of the entire book. Acemoglu writes in 500 pages what could have beenContinue reading “January Book Review”

This post was originally published on Quora on January 1st, 2018. Since my last update, a lot has changed. Almost immediately after I finished creating my little command line text game, I realized that this wasn’t what I had envisioned. It was playable, yes, but it was a single player game. I could play againstContinue reading “Update 2: Making the Cutthroat Game”

This post was originally published on Quora on December 28, 2017 At the beginning of the Fall 2017 semester, three friends and I formed a book club on a late night whim. We used the initials of three out of the four members to make the name PALS, which also conveniently describes our relationship withContinue reading “PALS Book Club: (Half) Year in Review – 2017”