2024/02/18

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14:28

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Failure Journal

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I applied to the Master’s of City Planning program at MIT and I didn’t get in.

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The failure

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Being rejected from the program.

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Why do I call this a failure / what would it have meant for it to be a success

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I feel some need to be credentialed in planning or policy for future work I want to do. But it’s very possible this is less important than I think, and really in thinking this way I’m exercising a chip on my shoulder.

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MIT specifically fits a lot of the ethos of what I care about (planning fundamentally, but with an eye for technology and innovation), the reputation is strong, and doing the program while here would have been efficient.

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What did I do wrong

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I could have spent more time on the Essay and especially on the portfolio. I had a second version of the portfolio that was much better and I did upload it a week or so later. But I’m not sure if they looked at it.

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This was a very rushed period of the semester as I was also applying to the MIT/SDM master’s (maybe I should have waited until the second deadline for that and focused on the MCP)

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What is a lesson I learned from this experiment / who can benefit from this lesson

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Not sure there’s a huge lesson here. Maybe give more time to things you think you’ll feel bad about not having spent more time on later.

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Also, internalize probabilities.

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I know the odds were low of getting this, but I still had a part of me over-believing in my chance. Not too upset all things considered, but I think that dissonance exists to some degree.

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I think that dissonance comes from some belief that I am able to do something, and feel that I could even be more capable than many who actually are there.

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Perhaps this is over confidence, a chip on my shoulder, or what have you. But it’s an interesting feeling to explore.

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I think this feeling also comes up during job rejections, but I guess you live with that possibility for less time.

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What’s a benefit that’s come from this failure?

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I have an opportunity to massage the chip on my shoulder and focus on the actual work rather than on the credential. At least for now.

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It’s also possible I could apply again next year, or to another program, but I don’t know if it’s really worth it later on. We’ll see.

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Vision Pro thoughts

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One interaction I’ve been particularly liking is the idea of having your hands on the keyboard, and then being able to quickly pick your hand up and pinch instead of moving your hand to the mouse. It’s quicker than moving your hand off the keyboard and to the side to just do a quick click on the mouse.

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This is useful when you are about to start typing but need to click to select a text field, for example.

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Possible that this interaction will overtake the keyboard + mouse combo. It would make sense to have a more efficient, smaller mouse placed nearer the keyboard when interacting with visionOS. Maybe the standard laptop form factor (keyboard above trackpad) without the screen is really the hardware you want for being productive on visionOS.

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Maybe there could be a version of this that would actually fit and fold into the headset itself for easy packing

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