While I really enjoyed my time in Japan, one of the things that I never really got over was how little was expected of me. Being white, people don't really expect you to know much about the language or culture. Actually, even after living there a year, people still expected me to be perplexed by chopsticks... the things that I used TO EAT... EVERYDAY.
I've read my share of Paul Graham essays, and one that really stuck with me was called Cities and Ambition. He says that being in LA makes you want to be hip, and being in New York makes you want to be rich. Living in Cambridge makes you feel like you have to step it up intellectually. I've never spent too much time in New York or LA, so I can't attest to the first two, but dead on with the third.
At one point he describes the feeling as being in the air. It really is amazing and I don't know quite how to describe it, except to say this. When I was little, I wanted to be an actor or ninja (ninja-actor or actor-ninja was aiming too high I guess). Now... with reading through the SICP Book, I have the oddest feeling that I want to be lambda man. I might be daft.
No comments:
Post a Comment