Food
I staged at several restaurants in high school, like the Finch, helped open up a restaurant in CT last year, hosted pop-up dinners for strangersand grew up with family dinners. Cooking and sharing food, across multiple settings, has been a major through-line in my life.
Schooling
I’ve been a student at several different types of schools. Growing up, I attended both a Quaker school and a Montessori school. Later, I went to the Mountain School – where I lived and worked on an organic farm, Haverford – a small liberal arts college outside Philadelphia, and Minerva – an experiment in higher education. I’ll also reach out to intellectuals whose thinking I admire to take their classes; last year, I took Jay Garfield’s class Philosophy of Self at Smith and Maria Heim’s class Buddhist Ethics at Amherst.
Retreats
I’ve been a part of a handful of retreats. The most meaningful of these was probably the Matthew Strother Center for the Examined Life – a liberal arts seminar and commune condensed into 2 weeks. I spent 12 days with Bill Deresiewicz and 5 other wonderful classmates reading James Joyce, farming, and eating and living communally. Following the program we co-wrote a piece where Bill coined the word allodidactism, which has now factored into my thinking on learning groups, communities of practice, and Scenius.
Co-living, Communes, and Co-housing
I’ve lived in, and organized, just under a dozen communal living spaces. Of these, a 14-person learning and living community UT in 2021 stands out as having the most significant influence on me. In these settings, I learned that the most productive learning environments are mostly emergent from small groups of curious people.
Farming
I’ve worked and volunteered at several farms – an urban farm, a permacultural operation, a small berry farm, a Jewish community garden and others. Working with my hands, in soil, outside, with others have been formative settings.
Ceramics
I’ve had a fluctuating studio practice since the end of high school. I’ve worked with a few ceramicists too; I spent a year as an apprentice with a Zen ceramicist in Western MA, making wood-fired stoneware. I enjoy making wheel-thrown, hand-altered functional and ceremonial ceramicware.
Magic the Gathering
Growing up, I played Magic the Gathering with my brothers. I got reasonably good at it, and travelled a bit in the US, Canada and Europe for tournaments. I got the chance to play the world’s best, like William Jensen (in a round 8 feature match of a Grand Prix) and Brad Nelson. I don’t play much now, but MTG shaped my thinking on strategy and systematizing seriousness.
Gatherings
The past 5 years, I’ve organized a lot of gatherings, for both friends and strangers. Often, they’re put on collaboratively with a friend, and are my way of exploring my longstanding interests in human relations, community, and alternative learning spaces. NY post covered two such events I organized for strangers. For friends, I recently co-hosted a Schvtzin in the Kitchen Shabbos with my friend Ethan Blake, where we collaboratively made a seven layer Matzah Mille Feuille, as part of his broader exploration of what it means to cook jewishly.
Speaking
In the latter half of high school, I had a strong interest in sustainable development. I submitted a few development proposals to relevant people, which afforded me the chance to speak at the IMF Annual Meetings, the Borlaug Symposium, the United Nations and other venues and to work directly with large institutions like the World Bank. I was even able to parlay this work to graduate high school with a second diploma for “Global Studies and Service”. I learned that the world is a malleable place, that the distance between oneself and important people is shorter than imagined, and that I could not only overcome fears (public speaking) but also become good at those things which fear attached itself to.