My plan

the next two years

08 Oct 2025 - 753 words

Last updated 08 Oct 2025

I felt like writing something about what I envision doing in the next two years, so here we go.

What I’m doing right now

Here are the courses I’m taking at MIT right now.

18.701 Algebra I

I’m taking it with Cohn, and it’s been a quite nice experience.

8.05 Quantum Physics II

Despite the name, you don’t really need 8.04 to do well in the class.

14.04 Intermediate Microeconomic Theory

I have learned a little less microeconomics than I would have liked and a lot more about my professor’s research than I expected.

21W.011 Rhetoric: Contemporary Issues

Taking this because I did not pass the first year essay exam. It’s honestly been a decent experience.

Other activities

The only club I would say I’m in is MAIA, as part of their AI safety fundamentals fellowship. I’ve realized that I might be a tad bit overqualified. Besides that, I just go to whatever events my friends are going to.

My study plan

When I think of why I’m in college at all, the main reason is to build a broad base of foundational knowledge. It’s hard for me to feel like what I know isn’t quite shallow. I hardly even know that much physics in the grand scheme of things; 8.05 is only a third year course. I feel like I can see the outlines of a core base of knowledge that would be a sort of 80/20 for everything I’m likely to encounter in life, and I want to learn it all as fast as I can.^[1]

^[1]: Some people have tried to convince me that I probably do already enough knowledge to do something else. To this, I point out my current inability to code a Python program longer than twenty lines that will compile.

So what is this core?

The following are really foundational.

Math. Linear algebra, multivariable calculus, differential equations, probability and statistics.
Computer science. Basic programming, data structures, algorithms.

Here are some things I want to learn because I think they’d change how I see the world.

Economics. Microeconomics and macroeconomics, game theory, mechanism design.
Physics. Quantum mechanics, statistical mechanics.
Computer science. Computation theory, computer architecture, operating systems.
At some point I probably should learn chemistry and biology.

Finally, at some point I would just like to learn:

Complex analysis, partial differential equations, nonlinear dynamics, cryptography, fluid dynamics, quantum field theory.

Where am I at with learning all this?

If all goes according to plan I ought to finish the first section by the end of this semester. I could probably do ~half of the second by end of second semester. I could plausibly do everything else in my second year.

Step two

Knowing a lot of things is unhelpful if you don’t actually do anything with it.

Here at MIT, at least in my friend group, it seems like everyone is doing research or has internships already lined up for the winter. For this fall semester, I opted to not do any of that, because I felt like I wasn’t ready. I think a lot of people would regard that as a mistake, and I’m still unsure. I think that having contact with “the real world” is very important, and I definitely want to get experience. I just don’t know if I should be prioritizing it a lot more.

I’m also unsure if I actually want to go back to MIT for a second year. I do have a schedule that allows me to graduate in two years that is honestly pretty light. I feel like the main argument against this goes something like “losing my youth”. It is true that I’m quite impoverished in “general life experience”, even relative to the average MIT student.

Of course, it’s not very helpful to think much about these questions right now, given how much better informed I’ll be when I have to actually make the decision.

The north star

Can you really expect an eighteen year old to have life goals? To have something in mind besides “make it to the next checkpoint?” Is there really some final objective that’s driving me to do all of this? I think there is a whisper in the back of my mind. I can’t describe very well right now what it’s telling me. I don’t even know if it’s right. Maybe something for a future blogpost.

This is the freest I’ve been in a very long time.