The Monk Dude leads us through some guided mantra meditation with beautiful live guitar. http://www.themonkdude.com
Past Talks
Composting
Learn how to compost, with special tips for the Bay Area. Browns, greens, and everything in between!
Mindfulness
Mindfulness: What is it and why I spend 2 hours a day meditating. Takes the audience through five minutes of guided meditation. Describes the basic characteristics of mindfulness/meditation (improving 1) concentration, 2) sensory clarity, 3) equanimity), what meditation has done for him and what it can do for you, and experiences with particular coaches/retreats.
Depression
Personal experiences with depression and how to get help. A very personal, moving, important account of his experiences with depression. He describes what depression meant for him, how he realized how normal it is, how he recovered, how others can seek help for themselves or for a friend. Many useful tips and resources for learning more and seeking help. Highly recommend.
Public Policy
Why public policy doesn’t always work the way you want it to. An extended analogy between design specs and public policy specs and why there are often differences between the spec and implementation. Why we should be spending more time discussing fundamental value differences that matter instead of getting lost in technocratic weeds.
What is colour?
Why are there so many representations for colour? Why are some of the cylinders? Why is RGB and YMC both legit? Nat blows your mind into a billion colours.
Why was I neverd told about Kernel Density Estimation?
When you want to see the distribution of a bunch of data-points, like grades, you usually make a histogram. But how do you choose the right bin size? Well, with Kernel Density Estimation, you don’t need to. Throw that histogram out the window!
The Emperors of India: The Mughal/Mogul Empire
Not the Mongol empire, the Mogul Empire. It’s the most epic empire you’ve never heard of, a tale full of romantic figures and it’s incredibly foundational to modern Indian/Pakistani/Bangledeshi culture.
Modeling as a side-job
You can model without being a super-model and Ashton Hong tells you how. Basically, it involves building a portfolio and a lot of human networking.
Cheffing and the Theory of Change
Chefs create recipes from the first principles. One of the ways they do this is by looking at the end product they want and combining the ingredients at hand. This is reminiscent of the Theory of Change put forth by Aaron Schwartz. Here we cover both of these while trying to make an awesome bowl of ramen!
