2/5/16: End of Week Update

1. After the math midterm, this week got a bit hectic. 
2. On Tuesday, I basically had classes and worked on my second hardware project--figuring out the right input strings to defuse a "bomb". I also worked on this coding assignment that recruiters for a company (DocuSign) had sent me after the career fair. 
3. Wednesday, I finished the hardware project, went to Neural, then an extra SPS meeting to prep for the regional conference, then sang at the basketball game with Glee. Watched the game--very good game--with my family, ate some ice cream with them and caught up.
4. Thursday: Skipped the entire afternoon of activities to go on a "Venture Capital walk" with some shmids (no Aunt Joan, this is not a physics reference) from Lavin. We visited VC's at Madrona, Maveron, and Second Avenue Partners, heard bios and asked questions. 
5. Some quick takeaways:
1. There are some ridiculous things being funded. There's this company called Booster, run by a really smart entrepreneur, a Caltech rocket scientist. 2/3 VC's extolled the virtues of this shmid. But what is he building? A fueling truck that drives around in corporate parking lots and fuels people's tanks. I mean, WTF? This is a P-roblem? It seems like a p-roblem in a world of PROBLEMs. 
2. Although VC's are swinging for the stars (typically), the things they are funding are often very niche. That is, niches are big enough that companies in them can have valuations attractive to VCs. Some examples: a company that takes waste food from grocery stores and makes organic fertilizer, or a company that does analytics for gamers running Twitch channels. 
3. The VC world is not identical with the startup world. The three VC's I talked to had backgrounds in finance, managing development at Microsoft, and one dude had a background in startups, but even he had a MBA, which it seems like most founders don't (many do, don't get me wrong). 
6. Today: stayed up really late doing math homework. After classes, took a brief nap, which was actually really weird. I was super tired but kind of alert, so I spent a long time in this state between consciousness and unconsciousness. I would be thinking about something in a conscious, logical manner, then I would notice that I was no longer driving the chain of thought--stuff was bubbling up from the subconscious that only made sense in a surreal dreamlike way. 
7. Then I went to Get the Physicists Together. Initially, it was just me, Chris, and Devin. Devin ordered pizza, I played some games with Chris while Devin grabbed the pizza. Then Frank showed up, we played outside for a bit, and after that Daven and Hira showed up. We played a good game of Carcassonne. In the middle of it I left to meet people in my housing group; we ended up walking back to the SPS so that they could meet Devin. Then we ate dinner at Aladdin's. Max, Trevor, Brandon and I went from there to get bubble tea.
8. From thence I went to Ryan's graduate rehearsal. Met Eleanor and Brianna and Brianna's family. It was pretty great. Planned a time to get dinner with those two. 
9. Finally, returned to Haggett, did a bunch of little chores, found a backpack on Amazon to replace my 20 year old hand-me down from Mom whose zipper is badly failing. 
10. Xin came back just as I was about to go to bed, so I hung out with him and Brandon. We ate Xin's leftover food, chatted about sleep and dreams, and played some Super Smash Flash. Very fun, family-group-like interaction.
11. And now I am going to sleep! Good night all!