A Brief History of John Baldessari

This five-minute video is a little story about the artist Baldessari, narrated by Tom Waits. His painting that is shown at 5:15 is one of my old favorites (ok so the video is six minutes. sue me).

Here's what I learned: Baldessari thinks every young artist should know three things.

1. Talent is cheap.
2. You have to be possessed, which you can't will.
3. Be at the right place at the right time.

The middle one is true of research as well. Tomorrow I walk across the stage at the Kohl Center, graduating with my Ph.D.! It definitely took many moments of being possessed to make it so far.

Maria Klawe from Harvey Mudd

My parents recently shared this newshour piece with me, an interview with Maria Klawe, president of Harvey Mudd.

My favorite part of the interview was her response to women who are considering careers in STEM fields. She said "My message is #1 try [computer science], because you won't know until you've tried it. Also if there are some male students who seem to know way more than you do, ignore it, because they tend to show it off more. Look for an instructor that is encouraging because that makes a huge difference."