<p>magd – NMSF is not a huge plus, but is a plus. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Most: [ul]
[<em>]uniformly very smart people (no ballast or pity admits or legacy admits);
[</em>]fun, openminded people who are fun to talk to and who do odd, entertaining things like add Hollywood stars with the names of Nobel laureates to the Hollywood walk;
[<em>]general absence of social elitism within the community; very egalitarian social environment;
[</em>]general agreement that physics and math are very powerful ways of thinking about the world and many other endeavors are somewhat flakier; (fits well with my scientific chauvinism)
[<em>]general respect for intellectual pursuits, high standards, and furious refusal to compromise those standards;
[</em>]world class faculty and their accessibility; opportunity to do world-class research and learn to think for real;
[li]lack of academic competition or pettiness about grades and such nonsense.[/li][/ul]</p>
<p>Least: [ul]
[<em>] insularity of some social groups;
[</em>] failure of some undergrads to have ambitions as impressive as their abilities; lack of curiosity of some undergrads; shyness;
[li] lack of aggressiveness of the institute about promoting its virtues and mission in the broader society;[/li][/ul]</p>
<p>What I do for fun:
[ul]
[<em>]Read poetry (A.E. Housman, T.S. Eliot, Robert Frost) fiction (Philip Roth, recently) and nonfiction (Slate, Harper’s, The New York Times, other newspapers, books about mathematics, social policy, education).
[</em>]Spend time with my wonderful girlfriend (sometimes by flying to MIT in the middle of the term, yum).
[<em>]Argue about interesting issues.
[</em>]Watch The West Wing.
[<em>]Play table tennis (recently! great fun)
[</em>]Run (distance) for fun.
[li]Recently: learn to salsa (the form of dance, not the thing you eat with chips)[/li][/ul]</p>
<p>May I avoid personal ads from now on and stick to things I am better at? Pretty please? :-)</p>