This page collects some texts I've written throughout my lifetime. Note that I don't necessarily endorse things I wrote in the past; for example, pieces older than late 2005 ignore animal suffering, including wild-animal suffering, which I now think is among the most important issues.
Contents
- Accounting
- Activism
- Animal welfare
- Autobiographical
- Biology
- Chemistry
- Cognitive science
- College essays
- Data backups
- Environmentalism
- Fiction
- German
- Health
- History
- Literature and film
- Math
- Misc
- Personal effectiveness
- Philosophy
- Podcasts
- Public policy
- Quick observations
- Relationships
- Statistics
- Taxes
- Writing
- Content by other people
- About these writings
Accounting
Activism
- Organizational Bureaucracy and Scalable Independent Work (2016)
- Making money and making change (2007) (pdf)
- Letter to Peter Singer (2005) (pdf)
- Hunger-banquet script (2005) (pdf, doc)
- Advocacy Letters, 2001-2005
- Handout on how to write legislative advocacy letters (2004) (pdf)
- Contacting Congress (2004) (pdf)
Animal welfare
- Dealing with Rodents in the Home (2017)
- Bugs Around My House (2016)
- I'm quoted in "Animal Rights Coalition works for cage-free eggs at Swarthmore" (2006) (backup pdf)
Autobiographical
- Résumé
- My dating profile
- Random facts about me
- I prefer life in the slow lane (2021)
- Why I rarely travel (2019)
- What I wanted to be when I grew up (2018)
- Stories from my childhood
- My Informal Will (2014)
- Stories from My Congress Internship (2014)
- Cover letter for internship at my Congressman's office (2006) (pdf, doc)
- Autobiographical Q&A (2005)
- Congress-Bundestag letter to host family (2005) (pdf, doc)
- Congress-Bundestag program application essays (2005) (pdf, doc)
- Mister Rogers speech (2004)
- Speech about an influential teacher (2004)
- Short autobiography in 8th grade (2000)
Biology
- If Humans Were Ectothermic... (2016)
- How Do Signals Evolve? (2014)
- Does DNA encode reward feature detectors? (2012) (backup pdf)
Chemistry
- Spectroscopic analysis (2006) (pdf)
- "Investigation of Internal Phosphorus Loading in the Watervliet Reservoir, New York, August 2004" (2005) (pdf), a research report I submitted to the Intel Science Talent Search in fall 2004. See also a summary (pdf) and PowerPoint presentation (pdf)
- Depleted uranium (2003) (pdf, doc)
Cognitive science
- Dreams vs. Argumentum ad Lapidem (2016)
- Functionalism for Swear Words (2016)
- Prawn pain (2009) (pdf)
- Comments on Some Famous Cognitive-Science Papers (2009)
College essays
- Georgia Tech OMS CS application essays (2014)
- Princeton University application essays (2004) (pdf, doc)
- Bowdoin College application supplemental essay (2004) (pdf, odt)
- Bates College application supplemental essay (2004) (pdf, doc)
- Swarthmore College application supplemental essay (2004) (pdf, doc)
- "Liking What One Has to Do" (2004)
Data backups
- Downloading Websites for Backup (2017)
- Some tips on backing up your data (2016)
- Backing Up Your Data against Geomagnetic Storms and EMPs (2016)
- Archiving data on Blu-ray discs (2018)
- Backing Up a WordPress Website on Paper (2016)
- Manually preventing data corruption in relatively static files (2019)
- Sanity checking the number and size of your personal files (2019)
- How I organize and back up data on my computer (2020)
Environmentalism
For my current views on this topic, see "Applied Welfare Biology and Why Wild-Animal Advocates Should Focus on Not Spreading Nature".
- Suffering-Focused Ecocentrism (2016)
- Encouraging My School District to Buy Recycled Paper (2002-2005)
- Recycled paper school-board letter (2005) (pdf, doc)
- National Merit Scholarship essay (2004) (pdf, doc)
- Recycling returns to Guilderland High School (2002) (pdf)
- Industrial hemp (2002) (pdf)
- Bt corn (2002) (pdf)
- Food irradiation (2002) (pdf, doc)
- Biotechnology and GMOs (2001) (pdf, doc)
Fiction
- Jokes
- Nairb story (2012)
- Children's book about self-identity (2003) (pdf)
- Pictures made with MS Paint (2000) (pdf)
- Erik and the three-eyed blobs (1999)
- Froge and Clifford (pre-1999) (pdf)
German
- Children's book in German (2004) (pdf)
- Marlene Dietrich bio in German (2004) (pdf)
- "My daybook" journal (in German) (2001)
Health
- Arm numbness while sleeping (2019)
- The mystery of my scratchy eyes (2018)
- My Very Mild Tinnitus (2017)
- Risk of and Productivity Loss from Lyme Disease (2016)
- Health, Safety, and General Life Tips (2015)
History
- "The Contributions of Robert La Follette's 1924 Presidential Campaign to the New Deal" (2004) (pdf)
- Charles Steinmetz (2004) (pdf)
- Great Depression and exports (2004) (pdf)
- Civil-war debate (2003) (pdf)
- Fictional Jackson impeachment speech (2003) (pdf)
- East Timor (2002) (pdf)
- Benjamin Banneker (2002) (pdf)
- Kaffir Boy review (2001) (pdf)
- The Incas Remembered discussion (2001) (pdf)
- Fictional immigrant letter (2001) (pdf)
- Nixon and Vietnam (2001) (pdf)
- Hitler's rise to power (2001) (pdf)
Literature and film
- Analyzing Time Lapse from the Perspective of Fixed-Point-Finding Algorithms (2016)
- Tangled Webs: Comments on Pretty Little Liars (2016)
- Don't Try This at Home: When Entertainment Hurts People (2014)
- Illness Narratives discussion (2006) (pdf)
- Connecticut Yankee review (2005) (pdf)
- Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead analysis (2005) (pdf, doc)
- Huck Finn: Reason vs. Religion (2005) (pdf, doc)
- "Heart of Darkness" and Apocalypse Now (2004) (pdf, doc)
- Owen Meany essay (2004) (pdf)
- Comments on "Bartleby the Scrivener" (2004) (pdf)
- "The Chrysanthemums" analysis (2004) (pdf, doc)
- Silas Marner review (2004) (pdf)
- Review of Citizen Kane and Mr. Smith (2004) (pdf)
- Omar Khayyam analysis (2004) (pdf)
- Discuss a Cyrano de Bergerac quote (2004) (pdf)
- 1984 comments, part 2 (2004) (pdf)
- 1984 comments, part 1 (2004) (pdf)
- Chapter-by-chapter notes on the first half of 1984 (2004) (pdf)
- Analyzing characters from Antigone (2004)
- Scene-by-scene summary of Antigone (2004) (pdf)
- Pi film (2004) (pdf)
- Interesting aspect of Macbeth (2003) (pdf)
- Born on the Fourth of July review (2003) (pdf)
- The Jungle book review (2002) (pdf)
- Romeo and Juliet commentary (2002) (pdf, doc)
- To Kill a Mockingbird analysis (2001) (pdf, doc)
- "The Chameleon" (a poem) (2001)
- Movie scripts (late 1990s)
Math
- Expected value of information (2007) (pdf)
- Logicism, intuitionism, and formalism (2005) (pdf)
- Georg Cantor bio (2005) (pdf)
- Derivative of a monomial (2004) (pdf)
- Intuitive attempt to derive area and volume formulas before I knew calculus... (2003) (pdf)
- A bingo probability problem (incomplete) (2003)
- Tic-tac-toe strategy (2003) (pdf)
- Ways to arrange clock digits into equations (2002)
Misc
- Computer programs
- Some 7th Grade Writing Assignments (1999-2000)
- Papers from 5th grade (1997 to 1998)
- Papers from 1st grade (1993-1994)
Personal effectiveness
- How I use todo lists (2018)
- My Search for Cheap and Safe US Cities (2017)
- Beware Overreliance on Theory (2017)
- Fastidious vs. Relaxed Approaches to Goals (2017)
- Learning "Useless Information" Is Not Useless (2017)
- Against Setting Records (2017)
- Should You Try to Read Faster? (2014)
- Against Self-pigeonholing (2014)
- Drawbacks to Formal Education (2014)
Philosophy
- A few possible definitions of "discrimination" (2018)
- Spending Your Pleasure Points (2018)
- Is Using Sci-Hub Morally Bad, Neutral, or Good? (2016)
- First-Person vs. Third-Person Empathy (2016)
- Thoughts on Feminism and Its Critics (2016)
- Interpreting the Categorical Imperative (2015)
- Journal entries, 2001-2005 (pdf)
- King vs. Van Dusen on civil disobedience (2004)
- Can breaking the law sometimes be right? (2004)
- Romanticism (2003) (pdf)
- Shift from religion to psychology (2003) (pdf)
Podcasts
- Some Podcasts I Enjoy (2015)
- Creating Podcasts of Wikipedia Articles (2014)
Public policy
- My amateur comments on Biden, Gaza, Western hypocrisy, and deescalation (2023)
- There are two sides to many stories (2023)
- If Taxes Could Be Earmarked... (2014)
- Carbon taxes (2005) (pdf)
- Green Party ads (2005) (pdf, doc)
- Hegemony or Survival review (2005) (pdf)
- Minor parties (2005) (pdf)
- Precaution on climate change (2004) (pdf)
- Terrorism vs. international health (2004) (pdf)
- Comments on a cartoon about American voting (2004)
- Does society have the authority to outlaw drugs? (2004)
- 2002 Farm Bill (2002) (pdf)
- Satire piece about Enron (2002) (pdf, doc)
Quick observations
- A Collection of Quick Observations (2019 onward)
- A Collection of Quick Observations (2018)
- A Collection of Quick Observations (2017)
- A Collection of Quick Observations (2016)
- A Collection of Quick Observations (2015)
Relationships
- Thoughts on Management Style (2015)
- Personal Thoughts on Romance (2014)
- Review of Timer (2009) (2014)
- Arranged-marriage satisfaction (2014)
Statistics
Taxes
Writing
- Why I don't write as much as I used to (2022)
- How should I name IDs in HTML? (2020)
- How should I format my citations and bibliographic data? (2018)
- Should You Read the Whole Article Before Citing It? (2017)
- Why I Usually Don't Formally Publish My Writings (2016)
- Writing Research Papers Is Fun (2016)
- How I Add Wikimedia Images to My Websites (2016)
- My Writing Style (2015)
- Writing Associate literature review (2006) (pdf)
- Less Confident Tutees May Benefit from More Direct Tutors (2006)
- Process and Post-Process Pedagogy (2006)
- On teaching writing (2006) (pdf, doc)
Content by other people
About these writings
I've largely left the older writings (especially before ~2014) unchanged since they were first written, although I do usually correct typos/grammar, and I occasionally make small revisions to the text. The main reasons to keep older writings mostly unchanged are
- it would be too much work to revise them to keep them updated
- part of what makes older writings interesting (at least to me) is the way they serve as a time capsule into my past views, information sources, and writing style.