in my graduate career i've had plenty of ups and downs, made mistakes of all sorts, and acquired timely strokes of luck. throughout all of this, i've persisted in giving all sorts of advice to younger students ..
.. sometimes solicited, but likely, often not.
one learns little lessons in how to maintain the frugal, erratic lifestyle of the american math grad student.
for example, some friends and i had just finished playing basketball at the university gym. one of them says, "oh man. i haven't eaten for 20-22 hours!"
i asked him immediately, "do you have to stay up tonight? work to do?" then all of us laugh at the absurdity of such a question, so i continue:
"whatever you do, don't eat a full meal now. have a banana or something small. if you eat something substantial now, the blood will concentrate in your stomach in efforts to digest, and you'll start to nod off from a lack of blood in the brain. did you get any sleep last night?"
he shakes his head.
"then you'll certainly crash after eating. eat small portions, drink a little coffee, stay hydrated, and you'll be fine."
"huh," he thought. "good point."
i feel like i'm teaching others how to ruin slightly their lives. also, that last part sounded a little too much like a dialogue that plato would write!
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