Summer Learning

“There is always a bigger fish.” — Unknown

Compounding Skills

At the end of the school year, my English class did a group project for a video advertisement. My group did an infomercial about perseverance, in which I dressed up as the ShamWow!/SlapChop guy and sweat a lot.

We were unable to do any recording in school except for one green screen scene in which my friend dressed up as Steven Spielberg and we planned to put Jaws footage in the background. I will not mention exactly why we were not able to record in school but I will say that it was not my fault.

Unrelated lesson: many problems originate from irresponsibility.

Back to the story.

We were at the library about to leave school when my group member desperately wanted me to stay at school to record. I was pretty confused because I could just record everything at home. I eventually got this person off my back by explaining that I ran a YouTube channel; she was concerned that none of the people in the group knew how to edit videos.

My Experience

I have been editing videos since 8th grade, when I made a documentary by myself for English class. If I did not have this experience, I probably wouldn’t even have a YouTube channel at all.

In 9th grade, I edited a book group podcast for biology.

In 10th grade, I edited a Buffalo Soldier documentary with a group for history.

In 11th grade, I edited and shot a short introduction about my school for a conference. Now, even though I didn’t know exactly how to edit with a green screen, it was very easy to learn because I was already familiar with the software.

Widening Gap

In effect, I had become better at something than almost all of my peers simply because I had done it a little bit more than them. However, that gap widened because in a lot of situations, I had to bear the responsibility of performing that skill for my group.

How many times have students been asked to make a poster, only for the question, “Are any of you art people?” to be asked? I’m sure that many people have become good at drawing because of the odd chance of being the one person who could barely count as average.

During the pandemic, graphic designers were in huge demand; a job that some saw no value in. How many graphic designers chose their profession because of that poster experience? I’m sure it isn’t all of them, but that tiny opportunity to do something new in the beginning is all that it takes to go down that path.

Khan Academy Junior Breakthrough Challenge 2022

I made a pretty nice video using Manim for the Junior Breakthrough Challenge. I did not know that the score is higher if the topic is harder, so I just picked gravity since it was something I heard in class.

Summer Research

I’ve been spending a lot of time on research for a physics + AI project this summer. Essentially, I want to find some new equations that describe the physics of fluids. Essentially, feeding in some information about the positions and speeds of particles and seeing what equations come out.

I do not have time, to explain everything, so if you are interested, you can watch my videos to get an idea of what I’m thinking of.

Annoying Processes

Universites shut down completely for the summer, the offices are empty like the TF2 department at Valve. So, there is no one to process internship requests, making my life way harder than it should be. My recommendation for other people seeking independent research with a university professor is to always rush people on paperwork if you have not heard back within 3 days.

Alternatively, you can join a summer program, but while the paperwork all gets handled for you, the application process is very tedious and is basically the same as applying to college.

However, a big benefit is being able to be around people who are interested in the same stuff. This creates an environment that pushes people forward because of the pressure that students put on themselves to meet the expectations of what the people in that group should do.

In the end though, it’s about what you are capable of doing as a researcher. In the field, no one can hear you procrastinate.

Summer Anime

The line-up of new seasons for this summer’s anime is really great. I watched the first two episodes of the obligatory new isekai and it reminded me of Minions with the pet slimes. I think it’s a lot fresher than the other ones in the same genre Overlord and Classroom of the Elite are also getting new seasons, which sounds interesting.