When I started my time at Penn, I envisioned semesters abounding with seminars by top professors and late nights filled with intellectual conversations with friends. But amidst the delicate act of figuring out how to fit in everything I want to do and frequent changes in what I want to study, I realize I’ve neglected to take advantage of my time in college to learn and grow beyond my classes.

This blog is my attempt to turn things around. This past semester, I’ve begun to attend talks and become more involved in research related to decision sciences and economic field experiments. I want an outlet where I can think through the novel ideas I encounter, add my thoughts and questions, and share stuff with whoever may be interested.

My goals are three-fold:

• Do something intellectually interesting every week. This could be going to a speaker event, reading a research paper, pursuing a side project, etc. Penn has plenty to offer in this respect—I just have to look for it. I might even venture outside of Philly should a cool opportunity arise.
• Add something to the conversation. I want to push myself to think beyond the obvious by asking questions and offering original thoughts to whatever I do each week. Learning from what others have to say is cool and all, but I want to be able to take their ideas and process them in my own way.
• Talk with others about these ideas. I’ve been looking for people with similar interests as me, so if anyone read these blogs and would like to talk further, I’d love to chat about these topics. I may be biased, but I think these conversations would end up being quite engaging and intellectually stimulating.

By the end of the semester (or however long I continue writing posts), I hope to look back and see that I’ve been able to use this unique time in college to do a lot of interesting things. I aspire to be someone with a wealth of thoughts to contribute and who exudes genuine curiosity when it comes to conversations about ideas in fields like economics. Right now, I still have a ways to go, but I’m ready to begin trying with this blog.

Thanks for checking it out 🙂