Haidt writes about the psychology of our moral standards and why people can hold vastly different opinions. Through his examples, it becomes strikingly compelling to believe that our moral responses—which crystallize into political beliefs—are not rooted in pure reason but rather are largely dictated by intuitions, evolutionary foundations, and culture-guided.

This book profoundly humbled me. As someone who was quick to fire to defend moral beliefs, this book changed the way I viewed reason’s role in bridging divides. Only by learning how to abandon self-righteousness while still remaining committed to our convictions will we be able to understand others.

I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to become more politically active. The book doesn't provide any political guidance, but it does provide necessary context to begin understanding people who hold seemingly foreign ideas to you and prevent you from further polarizing the already toxic political landscape in the U.S.

Interestingly, I learned and studied Kant after reading Haidt and Hume. Kant's work was extraordinarily "programmatic," in the sense that his process is deeply logical and makes more sense the more you mull over it. Although I often found myself hating reading his work, I remain in awe towards his contributions to the foundations of morality. I'm particularly convinced by his definition of autonomy and interested in Kant's Formula of Humanity. When understanding harms against autonomy in tech, I reference Kant's groundwork.

Nearly all modern, western, moral or political philosophers are in some conversation with Kant's Groundwork. As a result, I would recommend anyone interested in moral or political philosophy to read Kant.

After reading Shuboff's viral paper on Big Tech survelliance economy, I was fascinated by the relationship between attention and autonomy. This book offered a fascinating of such account.

One of James' most interesting claims is the importance of leisure free from external manipulation in maintaining our autonomy. In a world where free time for reflection is steadily declining, this book pushed me to intentionally carve out moments for “purposeless” mind-wandering. Whether through meditation or simply resisting the urge to fill every idle second with stimulation, like checking my phone while brushing my teeth.

I read this book when creating a project called Archailects which is a speculative newspaper set in the future that reports on tech. I was trying to be more coherent in explaining the purpose of such a creative, otherwordly project; It being that speculative design is one that shapes our understanding of what the possibilities our future could hold, and what our ideals should be.

This book is a requirement for all creatives. It answers the question to why we create things that may not have immediate utility.

Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction in 1969. Dubos demonstrated the importance of environments to our humanity, and the attention we must put towards our day to day interactions to become good humans. This idea sparked the lifelong goal of designing better technology for humans to intuitively do good things. Another book, a more modern one, that pairs nicely with this is Nudge by Cass Sunstein.

I found the anthropological account, evolutional theory, and psychological experiments very entertaining. It made me feel less like we are profoundly intelligent beings, but more like animals that more often than not merely responding to our environment.

This characters of the book are incredibly brilliant, and existing in their minds and their odyssey was extraordinary thrilling. This book is less about the aliens that humanity is about to confront, but about the human politics and the ethics of going to war with an intelligent species. We unravel this philosophy with our main character, Ender, as he navigates a unique form of military space school. Ender seems to fill the classic Chosen One trope, but his experience is violent and psychological, one that makes it unclear if he is the Chosen One to do something morally good or bad.

It cannot be left unsaid that Orson Scott Card, unfortunately, is someone who holds harmful opinions that I do not agree with.

A delicate story about female divers (haenyo) of Jeju Island as they face Japanese colonization and cultural upheaval spanning decades. It explores a deep friendship in the face of personal and political trauma.

The traditions of the sea women of Jeju Island were entirely unique to anything I've ever been exposed to. Every character had an arc that I was attached to. It was one of the first and only books I've ever cried to. I felt the grief the characters felt, teased out masterfully by Lisa See's craft.

The culmination of Paul's prophecy, planted in book one, comes to it's peak in the God Emperor of Dune. It's an epic story of a great metamorphosis in all regards; environmental, political, and personal.

I found it to be fascinating to be placed in the mind of an all-knowing, all-powerful creature. Every chapter begins with an excerpt from a fictional scripture or analysis that makes you feel as if the Dune universe had existed for thousands of years in real life with real historians, religious believers, technologists, etc. Herbert is a genius creative, and his ingenuity is on full display in this fourth book of the series.

This is a Japanese manga about immortal humanoid-stone lifeform led by a father-figure, God-like being who seems to have a strange relationship with their mortal enemy, a celestial humanoid lifeform. One of the few things that made this story stand out from the getgo was the uniqueness of the enemy.

At first glance, it seems completely otherwordly. However, as the story reveals the origins of these creatures, you'll see that this story is deeply grounded in humanity as we know it.

It follows themes of identity (Ship of Theseus) and the pain of existence through the disfiguration of our main character, Phos. The inclusion of Buddhist philosophy regarding attachment, suffering, and enlightenment along with the unusual, remarkable universe made this story unforgettable.

I spent nearly all of high school not interested in reading, but this book got me out of my slump so I have to give credit to where credit's due.

This story follows an Ethiopian immigrant in Washington D.C. struggling with loneliness, adapting to a new culture, and feeling a deep sense of loss of identity. It's not a flashy story; it's slow paced, and quiet. It examines small interactions between his neighbors and flashbacks to his life in Ethiopia. Through this, Mengestu is able to create a complex feeling of bittersweetness, of a tragedy that is not grand.

The writing is raw and real. I reflected a lot about the life my parents must've faced when they immigrated to the U.S. Mengestu, an immigrant himself, has insight and the craft to be able to explain the nuances beautifully.

This movie takes place in Amrum Island, Germany in 1945 when World War 2 ends. It follows a boy who is trying to calm his tormented mother who is anguished at the fall of Hitler, as their father seemed to be a high ranking Nazi officer or researcher in Nazi ideology.

The setting of Amrum Island is idyllic, occupied by many people who don't support the war. There are many stunning shots of the nature of the place and short explorations of life on this island. The slow-paced beauty is one of why I loved the movie so much.

I also loved this movie because it depicted a side of how confusing political transition can be. It is ultimately a coming of age story of a boy born in between political strife represented by his mother versus his community. I love a good coming of age story with beautiful cinematography that tackles nuanced themes like tackling indoctrination and moral awakening.

This movie was the best kind of rollercoaster from top to end. It follows con-artists trying to swindle a woman out of her inheritence through seduction. It had twists I never expected.

The pacing in the form of 3 parts had me lapping up every second I could get from this movie. It's sensual, it's psychological and funny. If not for the electric plot, this is also a cinematographic masterpiece--every shot is beautifully lit, with a coherent color palette that makes this like a Michelin star sensory experience.

And of course, the main theme in this story is power and control, and how the women in the show thwart the typical male patriarchy for their ultimate ascension. Peak.

A magical realism, psychological romance set in a scifi world where anyone could undergo a treatment to "forget" any memory, person or event. It follows our main character, Joel, who is trying to forget his failed relationship with a woman, Clementine. This movie is playful and explores the feelings of something so universal--heartbreak--in a way that is raw and raises the question of whether heartbreak is necessary.

The choreography of the movie was so wacky and unexpected so demonstrate the treatment and the relationship. Not only that, but it put criticism on the immature, "break-up" fantasty like "I wish I never met them" or "I wish I could just forget it ever happened." Instead, it urges us to rethink the purpose of heartbreak and sitting with the grief of the great loss of love. It's a wonderful message.

I love Burtalist megastructures in juxtaposition with retro-mid-century interiors (Blame!, a manga whose images are also featured throughout my website, and Dune also has this vibe) and Blade Runner really became my reference board for this aesthetic. A perfect example of this was the golden-lit interiors of the Wallace Corporations headquarters with its giant monolithic concrete spaces, geometric symmetry and characteristic furniture.

This movie is one of the introductory pieces of artificial vs. humanity and one of the main character's name is named Rachel, so boom, one of my favorites.

The movie is about an Iranian man searching for someone who will bury him after he commits suicide. It follows him in a car, often in long stretches of uncut filming, meeting all sorts of people who have different responses to his request.

The experience was rather zen and detatched. We learn nothing about the man's motives for suicide. I found this to be very raw and real. The movie is not preaching against suicide, but it captures the audience with the little tendrils of human connection that might convince someone to delay death. The movie is undecided enough for people to make drastically different conclusions, though. It's what makes it intellectually interesting.

Winner argues that technologies are not politically neutral because the design of any technology can shape social and political power, and patterns of human behavior. As a result, we should stop treating technology as a neutral tool and recognize that design decisions have political and moral decisions. Once we acknowledge this, we are equipped to build intentionally.

This paper gave me the theory and the articulation to talk about political technologies.

This is a beautiful essay about how our search for meaning is like Kolmogorov Complexity--a search for the shortest possible description or program needed to generate something: There is no principled way to know when we've found the "best" explanation. We shouldn't focus on the most optimal choice or trying to make everything explainable. Life has a necessary uncertainty. Necessary because it's what keeps our lives permanently interesting and alive.

This paper is what got me into tech policy and motivated me into utilizing my engineering skills for effective good. Lessig writes that the internet is regulated not just by laws, but by these 4 modalities, one being the code itself.

This paper, paired with Digital Borders by Tim Wu and Careless People by Wynn-Williams, shaped the way I saw my role in society as an engineer. It is clear that what we produce as engineers is one that changes politics at a global level fast. We have a duty to make sure we participate in a way that is good and safe. It is also exciting to know that I have the potential to enact such great change.

I was super interested in Effective Altruism in my senior year of high school and early years in college, and so, of course, I studied Peter Singer's works. Famine, Affluence and Morality is the piece that argues for creating a more demanding line between what is considered charity and what is considered morally obligated.

Singer argues that if we can prevent suffering or death without sacrificing something comparably morally important, then we are morally obligated to do so. The distance does not matter. I am still compelled to agree with this argument.

While I do not associate myself with the EA movement anymore, I think any moral agent in today's world who cares about doing good and not doing bad should read this and consider EA's arguments.

Just a lovely poem about the beautiful mind of the human race.

My first Michelin star restaurant that made me understand what it means to be a foodie. The chemistry of flavors and intentionality of the ingredients were insane. I loved the Asian influences in my dishes--particularly the pork belly and the pear dessert soup at the end.

The best Mediterranean food probably. Their octopus dish was THE best octopus I've ever had--with a mix of spices, red oil, fresh herbs, chickpeas, it was the golden elixir that blessed my mouth.

This place is vegan, and introduced me to a new dimension in which the vegetables could be in such great harmony that no meat could reach. I think the level of creativity in this restaurant must be celebrated as ingenuity in the food world.

Every single thing was a hit. The wine pairing, the lemon-y crab pasta, the truffle aranchini with a drizzle of honey, the tiramisu (which we ordered two of), and the company. I'm obsessed and in luck that this is just in town.

This list would not be complete without a Hunan restaurant. As a lover of the cuisine, I absolutely adored Hunan Impression--I went at least 4-5 times when I lived in the Bay Area for 6 months. The spicy grilled fish was immensely aromatic and numbing which left my mouth watering after every bite.

:D

Discovered and loved Japanese city pop all throughout high school during COVID. Wrote a lot of stories with this playing in the background during summer hot days locked up in my room.

I loved it hearing this live.

The instrumentals and the vocals on this are enchanting and made me fall in love with this groovy, arabic music genre. Went on a deep dive after this and appreciated everything I learned.

Had a phase in which I was listening to rock and dark psychedelic music and absolutely obsessed over the female vocals over the grunge, persistent base in the background. I love this album in general, but this one in particular reminds me of those times.