In sydney

An east coast I'll actually miss: the incredibly friendly people we met at hotels (pubs) and hostels, elite Chinese cuisine, everyday 70-deg and sunny weather, stunning coastal hikes, surfing, Sunday nights at beachside pavilions, Vivid, and, of course, Yo-Chi. I had a key realization in the land down under:

I could never hire a friend. Back when I was in my obnoxious The Social Network-esque entrepreneurial phase early in college, I actively sought to meet highly technical or skill-adjacent people. That box did not well-encapsulate the people to whom I got close. I elaborate in Essence of new, but the people I am drawn to are those of high agency.

Please do not confuse these people with those who are independent and can function in reality without help, because that is certainly not all of them; they are however independently drawn to things. It could be a crypto prediction markets lover who will, via Irish exit, disappear from the group and come back 15 minutes later up $100 (AUD*); a computer science lover who will push the limits of Claude's new model, pseudo-benchmarking, generating a huge codebase with, or trying to jailbreak it; even one who messages the group chat: "watching greyhound racing thurs, who's coming?"

Please do not confuse these people with initiative takers. Contact on the ball does not define a successful swing. One will not simply ask to meet up and expect another to conjure the plan but instead suggest "let's catch up over dinner this Friday evening at Lolita Fort Point" and follow through with a reservation and reminders.

Please do not confuse these people with planners, because for every objective in a session, there transpires at least one arbitrary event. The group might decide to go to a bar, but someone might break their arm in half wrestling along the way. One might take the group to camp on a national park island, but then force us to off-road in the dead of night to a lake to see the stars, get out, and almost die to a pack of wild dingoes. One might be our professor and teach us everyday, but will randomly invite us to join them at a hotel down the street and buy us all pints.

It's not that you shouldn't suppress these people from seeking their "new" by hiring them. You can't, because they won't let you. Join them when you can, because they do cool things.

Shoutout to these people: Ian, the program assistants, mr. b's fan club, co-authors Adrian and Madison, suitemates Brian and Lucas, post-abroad co-travelers Joji and Sukira, and the man Sahaj.