Ten Stitches Up, Nine Down
On knitting, perfectionism, and the scarf that’s been narrating my MIT years
We all know the trope: pick up a hobby, splurge on supplies, try it once, and never touch it again. I took it a step further—starting a scarf in 2019 and heroically refusing to finish it for years. What began as a quick winter project quietly turned into a long-running companion to my time at […]
Navigating MIT
How I learned to stop worrying and love the maze
When I first got into MIT, I was surprised. Then I felt a rush of excitement, and at last a sense of dread at the immense task in front of me. Getting a PhD is a gruelling endeavour that can test anyone’s intellect, drive, and sanity. So I knew I would face no shortage of […]
Following your fascinations for a fulfilling future!
How chasing his curiosity fulfilled a 13-year-old’s dream
From the moment I realized the significance of the sequence of events I am about to narrate, I wanted to save this story for my thesis defense speech. As I start the 6th year of my PhD, however, I can’t contain the excitement anymore. When I learned this blog post would be read by hundreds […]
How to train your robot
Cool research is built on a series of rather uncool moments.
It’s late on a Monday night, and as usual, I’m standing in the middle of a large playroom filled with a bunch of pretend tools. There are toy hammers, plastic wrenches, and even a pretend drill, all strewn across racks, tables, and bins. I walk around the room, running a final check to make sure […]
A kind of person, or kind-of a person?
Disentangling identity from work in graduate school
I close my eyes and imagine a world where I am only this: a violinist on a stage, where the music becomes my everything. I often play this way, temporarily blind to the reality that, after my final note fades, I will spend the rest of tonight staring blankly at a blinking terminal cursor. Music […]
