I’ve been procrastinating on writing this blog — in part, that’s because I have few thoughts outside of dissertation stuff right now, but also it’s because I’ve been doing more fun things recently. I thought I’d write an update post on the last four weeks, and I’ll keep punting the meritocracy topic until one day I feel inspired. I’m going to write buds and thorns from my current position, since I don’t really remember what I was anticipating/feeling negative about each week, but I’ll include roses and gratitudes for each week.
Week of June 16–22
Roses:
* I got my first dose of the vaccine (June 19)! It was at the Chelsea football stadium (the “home of the champions,” as it is said), which I imagine would be very cool if I were a football fan. Here are some pictures from inside the stadium:
* The Government Department hosted an “end of year” event (June 16), which was somewhat awkward, in the sense that I didn’t know anyone at this event (alas, I’ve done a great job of socializing with LSE people). But I met an interesting group of LSE undergrads who just finished their first year of university, including a guy who ran for his local city council at 18. Yay for running for office!
* I had a nice catch up call with one of my old Pomona professors (June 16), and I got some great advice for dissertation research.
* A Marshall friend was in town in London, so we got Turkish food (amazing food) and went to a used book store, where I found a book by Judith Shklar! Very hard to come by!
Gratitude: I’m grateful that I was able to get the first dose of the vaccine — it’s really a privilege to get some protection from serious illness.
Week of June 23–29
Roses:
* I started a weekly call with an old Pomona friend who I hadn’t kept in super good contact with, which was really nice (June 24).
* I had my first interview for my dissertation! It didn’t go super well, but once I went back and transcribed the piece, I found that I did learn quite a bit from it (June 25).
* The alumni association for Marshalls hosted a constitutional law panel featuring Jeffrey Rosen (a former Marshall who currently directs the National Constitution Center) and Kannon Shanmugan (also a former Marshall who is now a Big Law partner specializing in Supreme Court litigation). It was really cool. Also, they only took one question — and it was mine! The answer was somewhat rambly, but so was my question, so I can’t really blame them (June 25).
* Some old Pomona physics friends want to write a paper about the reading group that we turned into a class (Physics 9), and we had our first meeting this week (June 28). I have some skepticism about our ability to get anything published, but I think it’ll either way be a good exercise and, if anything, be a useful document to pass down to future Physics 9 facilitators (students who basically run the class). Ever since my internships in D.C., I've become a huge fan of writing everything into a memo, because you never know how much it can be helpful if it finds the right hands.
* I got drinks with a friend here, which was really fun! We went to a Wetherspoons, the chain pub in Britain, which was the first time I’ve been. Truly good deals — it was something like ten pounds for a cocktail pitcher, which was more than enough for the two of us. Alas, what the Spoons giveth in cheap alcohol, they also giveth in highly drunk Englishmen. It was also the evening after England beat Germany in the quarterfinals of the Euros, so people were quite merry about the prospects of England actually doing well in a football tournament (June 29).
Gratitude: The person I first interviewed was someone who had already helped me a lot for the project, so I’m extremely grateful that the person was willing to lend so much of their time to this endeavor.
Week of June 30–July 6
Roses:
* I visited Ani’s new flat with him (July 1) and helped him move out (July 2). While that was kind of sad, it was nice to see him happy about his new place!
* An old Pomona friend and I went to Canterbury together (July 3)! It was really cool! Canterbury is the seat of the Anglican Church (think “the Archbishop of Canterbury” — that enigmatic figure who often pops up in English political history, such as in brokering Magna Carta), and it turns out that’s because Canterbury is where Augustine (of Canterbury and not of Hippo, i.e., of Confessions fame, as I just realized) converted King Æthelberht to Christianity, thus planting the seeds for the Church of England. We found the Cathedral to be absolutely gorgeous, and we spent something like three hours just roaming the grounds and seeing the insides. There were some lovely staffers who wanted to tell us all about the history of the Cathedral and its most famous Saint, Thomas Becket, who was killed on order of King Henry II and thus martyred. Also, we had fish and chips (my first time!) at one of the local pubs — the fish and chips were absolutely amazing, but the peas were … gross. As my friend put it, they taste like green refried beans. Here are some pictures of the trip:
* A different Pomona friend came over for July 4. She’s not American, but she wanted a very American experience — so we had burgers, fries, roast asparagus (just to pretend that we had something healthy!), apple pie, and vanilla ice cream as our meal. Plus we went for a nice walk and watched the episode of Parks and Recreation where Leslie Knope first goes to DC (just to showcase our American patriotism).
* When Ani moved out, he took the WiFi router with him. I had scheduled to get WiFi later that week (July 9), but that left me with about a week without WiFi. It turned out to be an extremely productive week — I’d go to LSE during the afternoon/early evening (sometimes having been to the LSE gym that morning and run back to the flat for a shower and lunch), and then after eating dinner back at the flat, I’d read papers on my computer until bedtime. It was actually a great blessing. Plus, living by myself has given me a lot more freedom (especially since my sleep schedule was very different than that of my flatmates).
Gratitude: I’m grateful that my friend reached out and suggested doing the Canterbury trip. I realized I have a ton of trips I want to do, but without something pushing me to do them, I rarely get around to planning them. So the impetus was really helpful.
Week of July 7–13
Roses:
* I had my second interview (Jule 7), which went pretty well but was unfortunately cut a bit short. Nevertheless, it felt pretty productive, and I think less awkward than my first one!
* My LSE cohort had dinner together (July 9), and it was actually the first time I met a lot of the folks in person. They were nice people, although I did feel like I got talked at for basically three hours straight! Here’s some pictures of us all together:
* I met up with my old friend from high school, and we went down to Brixton together (July 10). Brixton is a fascinating place — it’s a neighborhood of London where a lot of the Windrush generation of British Caribbean migrants, who came to Britain (their ‘motherland’) in the 1940s through 1960s, settled. As a result, it has a really cool history. I biked to Brixton with my LSE friend in the winter as part of our ‘London Boy’ trip, but that was when things were closed due to lockdown. This time, we got food at Fish, Wings, and Tings (we had jerk chicken — so good). We also went to the Black Cultural Archives, which included a nice timeline of Black British history as well as a cool exhibition on sickle cell anemia and its racialized politics. Also, it turns out Brixton has a windmill that’s still operating. We learned about how to grind flour, and I even bought some of their ground flour. (I later made bread with it … and, just being honest here, it just doesn’t taste as good as white flour. But alas, when has whole-grain ever tasted as good?)
* England was in the finals of the Euros (July 11), and so even I watched the game. It was a really wild day, in the sense that there were so many English flags and drunken English people walking around even in the early afternoon (the game started at 8pm). Much of the game was rather boring — England scored its first (and only) goal very early on (something like two minutes in), and then Italy didn’t score for a while. But then it got to over time, where neither side scored, and then it went to penalty kicks. And those were so stressful! And the poor English fellows ended up losing in penalty kicks. I had gone to another Marshall’s place for a watch party, and on the way back, it was truly a dismal sight. It was dark, rainy (because, you know, England), and there were just so many crestfallen British people walking home from the pub, heads down in disappointment. Also, lots of drunken people; I intellectually know lots of British people pee in public at night, but it was the first time I’d witnessed it!
* I had a nice call with one of my old Pomona friends (July 12); I hadn’t talked with her in a long time, so it was really good to see her and hear from her. She was calling from Pomona’s campus, which was kind of wild.
Gratitude: I’m quite fond of the friend from high school that I went to Brixton with, and I’m really grateful that I got to see her again before she leaves to go back to the US for a few months.
Week of July 14–17
* I had two more interviews this week (July 14, July 17), both of which went really well and I think I learned a lot from. I like to think I’m getting better at interviewing, but in reality, it’s probably just that I have better questions to ask now that I’m learning more and hearing from experts more often. Also, both of the people I talked to this week were really eager to help, whereas I think the last ones were less enthusiastic.
* I’ve been calling my LSE law professors to get advice about approaching a legal career since I’ll be applying for law school this fall. I had two calls this week for that as well (July 14, July 16). I’m not sure that either was all that helpful, but I did walk away from the first feeling much more excited and eager about a legal career; the second call just made me feel confused (I got the distinct feeling that that professor doesn’t like me very much, which is unfortunate because I really liked her and her class!).
* We heard back about our OLC paper! Last time, we had gotten a revise-and-resubmit, but this time we got a conditional acceptance! The strange thing about the comments, though, were that two reviewers were extremely happy with the paper, and one was extremely snarky. I got the sense, though, that the reviewer who didn’t like the paper read the wrong version of the paper — the critiques didn’t make all that much sense, in my humble opinion, and indeed some of them were factually wrong (i.e., the person stated we cited people that we didn’t, and claimed we didn’t cite people that we did). Either way, though, a win!
* I went to the Tower of London! LSE gave us free tickets, so I finally got to go to that infamous prison where so many habeas writs were issued! I think much of the fanfare for the Tower is associated with the fancy armor, the crown jewels, and the British soldiers dressed up with their tall fur hats and red uniforms. To be honest, though, what I found by far the most powerful were the etchings on the walls by prisoners, people who presumably just wanted to leave some record about their humanity and experiences. Many of the prisoners were powerful and were jailed for political reasons; others for religious reasons (I noticed many Catholics and people accused of sorcery on the list of prisoners). I also saw the location where the Princes in the Towers were allegedly found (i.e., where Charles II found two skeletons that were later determined to be the remains of children and were thus presumed to be the missing children). Also, I learned about the Constable’s Dues, a funny ritual where the crew of a Royal Navy warship delivers a barrel of rum to the Constable of the Tower, reflecting the Constable’s traditional form of sovereignty over the area (among other things, the Constable could extract a toll from ships passing into London, and the Constable would offer protection and perform state functions such as the adjudication of civil claims and enforcement of criminal law). Here are some pictures:
* I went to go visit Ani and see his place now that he’s moved in! It was pretty nice, although it’s very hot (there’s a ton of windows, no blinds, no air conditioning, and very little ventilation because the windows don’t open). I think he’ll be miserable for these next few days (we’re getting a sizzling high of 89 F, which is sufficiently hot that the government issued a heat-health alert), but otherwise it seems like a wonderful flat. The location is pretty cool — tons of green space. We went for a walk, and I took some pictures.
Gratitude:
* I’m grateful to the folks who were willing to take time out of their busy lives to do interviews. (I think both of the folks I interviewed this week were actually on vacation — one was visiting their in-laws, and the other was in Egypt! So even more amazing that they were willing to take the time.)
* I’m grateful to the reviewers for looking over our OLC paper and providing really constructive feedback. I have skepticism of this second round of comments, but nonetheless, that really qualified and smart people are essentially doing free work for us is kind of incredible in itself. It’s something to be grateful for, I think.
* I’m grateful to my professors for being willing to take time during their summer (their main time to do research) to chat with me and give me advice on building a legal career.
Buds:
* We’re having a Marshall dinner this upcoming Wednesday, which will be the first time that I’ve been at a big Marshall gathering. It should be fun! Or, at least, it’ll be free food and an excuse to wear a tie.
* After the dinner, we’re going on a group trip up to Glasgow! That should be really cool, if only because it gives me a change of location at which to do dissertation work. Half-jokes aside, it’ll be really nice to see Scotland and to hang out with non-London Marshall friends (some of whom I only know through Zoom!).
* I’m running a 10K next week! I’m running with a few friends (a high school and a Pomona friend), and we’re running to raise money for Alzheimer’s Society, a charity in the UK that funds research and provides care for folks with dementia. If you’re able, please donate here — I’d love to raise more money! In case you’re curious, I brainstormed some Q&As for this (this is a repost of my Facebook post, so some of you will have seen it already):
Q: Your fundraiser is in British Pounds — but Isaac, I’m ’Murican and only have US dollars!
A: No worries at all! When you send the donation, you can change the currency to dollars; it’ll charge your bank a transaction fee, so you should check your card policies on that front, but otherwise it’ll work smoothly.
Q: I think this is a great cause — but there are so many other causes! How do I, as an effective altruist, know that this is the right one to send my money?
A: I think it’s a tough one, but personally I have some skepticism that we can flatten “efficacy” into a unidimensional measure with which to rank order charities. GiveWell, for example, tells us that among the most “high-impact, cost-effective charities” are those that provide medicine and mosquito nets to deal with malaria — an obvious low-cost intervention with huge humanitarian benefits. They presumably only assess charities working in “global health and development,” though, because the outcomes are fairly easy to measure and thus verify as positive; indeed, they don’t include single disease research-funding charities (like Alzheimer’s Society) in their assessment. But it is a good thing that such charities exist. For I don’t think we would want a society that invests only in proven, direct solutions to social problems without funding speculative R&D or root-cause efforts, even if doing so generates inefficiencies.
So if, to you, plural ideas about efficacious investments are permissible, then the next question is whether this particular charity is good at using its money. I’m not financially literate in any sense of the term, but that statement is especially true when it comes to assessing non-profit finances. So make the judgment yourself: if you want information about this specific charity, here’s its most recent financial breakdown. For what it’s worth, this Random Guy on the Internet (™) also looked at effective altruism and concluded this charity is worth donating to. (He does critique Just Giving for being a for-profit platform that takes fees, though; it’s a 1.9% or 2.9% + 20 pence fee based on the currency you donate in. Take that as you will.)
Q: But Isaac, do you run? Can you even do a 10K?
A: Indeed, I am not a good runner! So give me some extrinsic motivation to run by donating more to this cause 🙂
* I ended up getting off the waitlist and into LSE’s Applied Social Data Science Master’s program, so I’m actually going to stay in London! I’m pretty excited (although I had definitely convinced myself that Manchester was going to be really fun). The thing I’m not excited for is trying to find a new place to live, though! And I’ve bought a sufficient number of books that it’s going to be a major pain to get them to the next place.
Thorns:
* I am a bit nervous about the 10K because my knee has been hurting when I’ve been running. I’ve been sticking to biking at the gym to get my cardio as a result, so fingers crossed that the rest is sufficient to help it heal!
* A lot of my emails seem to have gone to people’s spam folders when I was trying to get interviews, which has led my dissertation to feel somewhat disastrous. Also, my “snowball” technique wasn’t working — none of my first three interviewees gave me people to talk to. But my fourth person was super helpful, and a contact also helped find some further names, so I’m feeling more optimistic! Either way, though, I’m feeling really passionate about this project — I’m spending a lot of my free mental space thinking about my dissertation. The theme song for the project (and that I’m going to quote in the actual dissertation): “End Game” by (who else?) Taylor Swift. It’s a song that I didn’t like when I first heard it (to be honest, I didn’t like any of that album, Reputation, except for the last song, “New Year’s Day,” on my first listen through), but the song is the right vibe and offers meaningful insights into what I’m getting at with my dissertation. The key quote: “Reputation precedes me, they told you I’m crazy / I swear I don’t love the drama; it loves me.”
Future topics:
* I certainly will eventually write about meritocracy, but, to be honest, I don’t feel sufficient intellectual interest in it right now to be able to generate a good post about it. It’ll happen eventually.
* I want to write a bit about Brnovich, the Supreme Court’s Section 2 case, as well as Collins, its case dealing with the constitutionality of for-cause removal protections for the Federal Housing Finance Agency.