Jeff Bezos tells a great story about the smartest guy he knew at Princeton. He and a classmate were working on a really tough math equation and getting nowhere. They spent 3 hours on the problem and gave up. So they brought it to the smartest guy in their program, who looked at it for …
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Difficult math is about recognizing patterns: lessons from Jeff Bezos
Jeff Bezos tells a great story about the smartest guy he knew at Princeton. He and a classmate were working on a really tough partial differential equation and getting nowhere. They spent 3 hours on the problem and gave up. So they brought it to the smartest guy in their program, who looked at it …
Continue reading “Difficult math is about recognizing patterns: lessons from Jeff Bezos”
The best ARE 5.0 flashcards
You’ve got a few options for the best ARE 5.0 flashcards. Let’s take a look. Guide for the Overwhelmed, ARE 5.0 Flashcards My flashcards! Written by me, designed to convey information clearly and succinctly. Pros: the information you need to memorize, succinct, includes diagrams Cons: digital only, costs about $70 all-in (but can be purchased …
We shouldn’t be using R0 to measure the rate of COVID-19 transmission
There’s a pretty extraordinary clip that I saw on Twitter the other day of Angela Merkel discussing the R0 of COVID-19 in Germany. In it, she explains that R0 is how many people, on average, that an infected person transmits the virus to before they recover. If R0 is greater than 1, the number of …
Continue reading “We shouldn’t be using R0 to measure the rate of COVID-19 transmission”
Asymptomatic shedding of viruses is the norm
*edited to be more clear about relationship between shedding and contagiousness Recently, there’s been scientific and media attention on how people can spread COVID-19 without showing symptoms. This is obviously a public health threat. However, this is also something that really should not be news. Most infectious viruses can be spread without people showing symptoms. …
Continue reading “Asymptomatic shedding of viruses is the norm”
How to make bird flu (H5N1) cross over to humans
After writing my last post on why humans keep getting deadly viruses from bats, I got some interesting questions on why some viruses cross over from animals but most do not. What needs to happen for a virus to start infecting humans? Or, perhaps more pertinently, what new viruses do we need to worry about …
Continue reading “How to make bird flu (H5N1) cross over to humans”
Why do human beings keep getting diseases from bats?
Humans get a surprising number of very infectious diseases from bats. We get SARS (including the recent COVID-19/SARS-CoV2), Ebola, rabies, and possibly mumps. These are all incredibly infectious, deadly diseases. This seems weird because human beings aren’t in particularly close contact with bats. They’re nocturnal, don’t have large city populations (for the most part), and …
Continue reading “Why do human beings keep getting diseases from bats?”
How to study for the MCAT
This post shared by Trevor Klee, Tutor. 1. Your overall MCAT studying process a) Start with a diagnostic test. What are your specific strengths and weaknesses? Use the error log app to discern the patterns. -The error log is like flashcards, but more flexible and better for analytics. b) If you’re missing content, review the Khan Academy videos for …
How to study for the GRE
This post shared by Trevor Klee, Tutor. Your overall process when preparing for the GRE a) Start with a diagnostic test. What are your specific strengths and weaknesses? Use 21st Night to discern the patterns. If you put the questions you get wrong into the error log app, then head to the analytics section, you’ll get an …
How to study for the LSAT
This post shared by Trevor Klee, Tutor, a Boston-based and online LSAT tutor who scored 175 on his LSAT. 1. How to Prepare for the LSAT a) Start with a diagnostic test. What are your specific strengths and weaknesses? Use 21st Night to discern the patterns, and follow the error log’s patterns for review (don’t skip them)! b) …