Fancy Library Day
Amtrak Adventure 7/31 (about October 6th, 2021)
Yesterday was our last full day in NYC for the trip! We’re heading out today, onto the Silver Star down the eastern seaboard to Miami.
We slept in, then spent most of it working—but in an exciting place, at least:
I’ve been to the Reading Room once before: when I came to NYC in the fall of 2019 on my first (and probably only) vacation alone. I had meant to spend a week exploring, but ended up laying in bed for most of the time… and spending the rest of it here, reading and programming! Coming back triggered a ton of memories from that trip; this is probably the most familiar place for me in the whole city.
Mattea was impressed with it, too! The ceilings look gorgeous in photos, but even better in person—it’s a truly stunning experience. They’ve banned all tourists recently, which makes it even better: it’s an actual library, quiet and focused, without tons of chatter and camera shutters going off.
Even the WiFi is surprisingly good: 22 Mbps up/down during peak hours! After getting that result, we looked around for routers in shock; if you squint at the picture above, you can just barely see them (white squares) around the top of the bookshelves.
In the evening, we went to a party hosted by my coworker Dennis in Brooklyn! Met a few people there, and had a series of invigorating conversations/debates about the disruptive potential of “general AI” (this took up most of the time), the feasibility of individual biohacking via CRISPR, the implications of easier energy generation, and the merits of different kinds of diets / lifestyles / willingnesses to use various drugs (primarily caffeine and alcohol).
We always love having serious discussions with intelligent people; Dennis’ gathering was a great way to end a rushed but rich stay in New York!