This is one hell of a How I Work.
And he has a hack for his morning shower that frankly sounds impossible.
Hes everything we look for in a How I Work guest.
I make a run at carry as little as possible and I never throw anything away.
I went to college wanting to learn everything.
And I did for a while.
I picked up seven degrees from MIT and Stanford, but finally settled on the field of behavioral economics.
Take us through a recent workday.
I help my wife get them fed and dropped off at school by 8.
But the days I can skip the commute are much much appreciated.
On those days we can take more time getting the kids to school.
Then I usually find some coffee shop or library to work in.
Besides your phone, what apps, gadgets, or tools cant you live without?
I currently usePocket Casts.
But I like the flexibility of Android.
I walk a lot in the city and I commute for a long time.
Podcasts make those times feel productive.
Or at least not a complete waste.
And Pocket Casts is way better at managing my podcasts than Apple Podcasts.
Apple was always so opaque about what was downloaded or cached and gave you so little control.
Ive also become obsessed with keyboards lately and have probably purchased over a dozen in the past few years.
But my favorite typing experience is still on custom built mechanical keyboards.
The fully programmableortholinear Planckis my favorite.
While it is somewhat portable, it is still heavier than Id like.
Delivery was supposed to be in 1-2 months.
Over three years later, the company website still says to expect delivery within 1-2 months.
I still use vi everyday.
Whats your workspace setup like?
I worked on Wall Street in the days when using a mouse was a sign of weakness.
Dropbox keeps all my files synced across all my devices.
Microsoft Office, Google Docs, and Google Inbox (RIP) all work well across devices.
Migrating to Python will give me more cloud options, but for now I make do.
What are your favorite resources for research?
Whats your best shortcut or hack?
Brushing teeth while I shampoo my hair?
I know it sounds ridiculous.
Saving two minutes a day by combining the two is 720 minutes in a year.
Twelve whole hours or half a day!
I know thats not a work hack but 12 hours is a lot!
Or three hands total.
That was a problem.
The solution was to squeeze the shampoo onto the back of the hand holding the toothbrush.
Take us through an interesting, unusual, or finicky process you have in place at work.
(I loathe grading btw.
I think every professor does.)
One thing thats wrong is that grade inflation has made students expect to get As.
I once guest taught in a department where an A- was considered a failing grade.
All students only got As in that department.
My research assistants and co-authors.
Research is a heavily collaborative activity.
Working with student research assistants can be hard.
Because they are there primarily to learn, getting the work done is secondary.
Still I find the teaching rewarding.
One of the main benefits of having co-authors on research projects is that they set deadlines for you.
Otherwise, a professor with tenure could procrastinate indefinitely on completing their research.
Since my collaborators are around the world, I rely on video and text chat apps.
How do you keep track of what you have to do?
Which works great but is annoyingly slow.
Why is it so hard in 2018 to make a note taking app that loads quickly.
I wrote a note taking app almost three decades ago in GW-BASIC when I was 10 years old.
Youd think there should be something better by now.
How do you recharge or take a break?
Super low-key Final Fantasy game on my phone.
I remember playing the originalFinal Fantasyon the original Nintendo.
Whats your favorite side project?
However, its nice to have an excuse to program myself.
What are you currently reading, or what do you recommend?
Just finishedThe Three-Body Problemby Cixin Wei.
The book jacket has an endorsement by Barack Obama!
First novel translated from Chinese that Ive read.
How are still having first woman headlines in 2018?!).
The art (by Sana Takeda) is amazing, and the world building is out of this world.
There is a Chinese theme here which is not that typical for me.
But this seems to be a very Asian-American year in pop culture.
Who else would you like to see answer these questions?
But I loved hearing about all of the names of the cover, not just the headliners.
Maybe a podcast producer.
In particular, the longform narrative producers like atThis American LifeorSerial.
Whats the best advice youve ever received?
My brothers ex-boyfriends mother is a life coach.
To hear what they are saying and then to reply with Yes, and rather than Yes, but.
I think about that advice often.
It has been important both in my personal life, but also in our increasingly polarized political discourse.
Its also a key part of how I operate in the classroom.
