Spring Quarter

Spring quarter has arrived, and it’s amazing. The sun is out and everybody is so much more cheerful; the weather is roughly comparable to sunny Singapore minus the humidity. I’d still trade humidity and the need to bathe everyday for year-round sun.

I’m taking 4 classes this quarter: a history class (Making of the Modern World), a writing class (Rhetoric of Crisis), Econ 52 (Macroeconomics) and CS106A (Fundamental of Programming). Almost all of them are enjoyable and this should be a good quarter, academics-wise.

But most of my efforts will be spent on the open infobase project, which we’re working on now. The team is now 4 people strong, and we’ve got interest from a few key players in the industry- all this with nothing more than personal pitches to people and a few emails.

However I hope to hold of all the hype for a while. It is of paramount important that we develop a product that is actually useful to the people on the ground; very often we fall into the trap of developing what we want for the world, and not what the world needs. Thus we will be  talking to NGOs and individuals to learn what they need. Only when we have a clear idea of what we are doing will we go and ask for money and support from others.

I do feel guilty, however, for not enjoying freshman year as it should be enjoyed. But sometimes the burden of an idea which could do something to make all of us better off weighs on your back, and again I dive into another project. Here we go.