Firstly, I just wanted to thank you for reading this newsletter and those who have gone on to a support it by a paid subscription. It’s something that has helped make writing into quite a habit. Normally, I wouldn’t have bought WiFi on a flight but knowing you’re out there reading it really helps with motivation and sense of trying to keep this interesting, entertaining and useful.
This week saw the conclusion of the Data Sci class I was taking at Stanford. So far it’s the only class I’ve audited during the summer semester and I’ll see if any other interesting ones arise that I can drop in on in the future. I never managed to catch up on the lab work so settled on learning the concepts in the lectures. The last lecture wrapped up this pretty amazing arc of knowledge that allowed for quite an understanding of machine learning and data science. Quite an achievement for 8 weeks! The final lecture even had some pointers/slides for us: the 2 medical visiting scholars in his class to help us implement the knowledge in the future- it was a very nice and thoughtful way to end the course.
The rest of the week was spent preparing to visit family and friends in NYC. Ever since the last time I visited here, I have to say I’ve started to feel more “like a local” here given the neigbourhoods, the areas and even navigating around is becoming much more familiar. Even though I was last here exactly a year ago, a lot has changed with yet another cousin getting married. It was nice to get to know more of the extended family.
Most of this trip was spent either just chatting with family or catching up with friends who had moved here from Melbourne. Given that I didn’t have any obvious constraints on time with any events or the desire to go sightseeing, it made me realise and reflect on the parable above: once your basic needs are met, most of what you’re like to really want can be stripped down to the simple pleasures…
One of those “golden memories” this weekend was a bunch of the family playing the boardgame, Sequence*. It’s simple enough that almost everyone could pick it up quickly and many more than I expected ended up playing. Most of the older members of my family aren’t fluent in English and my wife doesn’t speak my native tongue. When it came to the game though, which DID involve teamwork, I looked up to see her and my aunt strategising our teams down fall with barely any words.
It was just one of those moments that I’ll hang on to given the stereotype with extended family is always that of nuisance rather than joy…