LAURA GAO
Who?
- I love the pain of striving towards my goals.
- I'm against inadequate equilibria
- Subpoint: Experimenting with integrity as an end in itself (this article's framework roughly captures it)
- A Stoic. "If you regard things which are in the power of others to be your own... you'll have cause to lament" (Enchiridion 1)
- Self-described lover of ideas, conversations, and people
- Obsessed with self-improvement
- Misc personality quirks
Ok but principles are just are flowery words, what do you do?
- Making films. I'm married to After Effects.
- Making websites (here's one)
- Quantum software/research intern @ Zapata Computing (paper will be published soon)
- Design/art (lmk if you want to see a portfolio. for now, here's a singular comic I drew.)
- Writing. Narrative, argumentative, poetry, expository. More writing samples are hidden in links in the "Who?" section.
Those projects seem to be from months ago. What are you actually doing now?
- Writing college applications (until Jan 1)
- That's it. I focus best when I have 1 priority at a time that I can fully devote myself to. I try to maximize Deep Work.
You don't seem very impressive.
Gosh, this is what identity capitalism is gonna make me do? Fine. I'll brag.
- Selected as 1 of 100 people to be an Atlas Fellow, receive a $50k scholarship, go on an all-expenses-paid 2-week trip
- Self-taught full-stack developer. Didn't take webdev courses beyond HTML/CSS, just figured stuff out as I build projects
- Directed the filming + editing of a two-hour video recording of a school concert. 150+ hours of work
- Self taught at filmmaking too. 3D animation and visual effects and everything else
- Learnt French from A2/B1-ish to C1 level in 4 months (also self-taught)
- Self-studied quantum mechanics at 15 and got a softeng internship @ quantum computing company
nvm. this is a drain on my soul. ∄ no more bragging on any other section of this website.