On Saturday I worked at the space, but I had to do a lot of administrative catch up. For example, I hadn't logged into Facebook for maybe two weeks. I tend to think of Facebook as a place I go to hang out with some friends, and I've been too busy to hang out. Unfortunately, I hadn't thought through the fact that Facebook is my single point of contact for some people, and I had missed important messages from them. So I spent some time making amends, and have revised my morning habit of checking on Important Things to include that channel. I also spent some of the evening helping Zooko with a time-sensitive proposal for Least Authority.

Part of the day was spent watching The Internet's Own Boy with other Schoolers. One of them wrote an insightful post about that, and I don't have anything else to add at this time.

As to programming, I had a lot of fun working with an alum. Alums are allowed in the space in off hours whenever there is a current Hackers Schooler there. I had seen him before in the space, but hadn't taken the time to introduce myself. He asked me about my work, and to my great pleasure, we were at the whiteboard within minutes. After hashing out some ideas, we paired on a solution we had conceived to my current task. I feel extraordinarily lucky to be in a place where that kind of spontaneous interaction can occur. I know that I can trust the people I meet at Hacker School to have a particular attitude and respect that cuts through reluctance I might have had in allowing that process with a random coder elsewhere.

This kind of spontaneity appears to be typical here, although I think for those of us in the new batch, it is still not quite second nature. The power of it is beginning to sink in.

Those of us still left in the space after sundown celebrated the beginning of Ramadan with a meal cooked in the hacked crockpot (a story for another day). I contributed some ribs so I could participate. I was inspired to start a modified fast for the holiday. I plan to consume only beverages during the fasting hours, that is, coffee with or without fat, and water. Such a regime is one form of intermittent fasting (IF), which, as a long-time Paleo/Ketogenic dieter, I have dabbled with in the past. Like the ketogenic diet itself, IF has benefits that appear to share mechanisms with Caloric Restriction, but without the downsides of long-term nutritional depletion. The benefits of alternate day fasting happen even when calories are not restricted on average, and appear to correlate strongly with the ketosis that is induced (at least in mice)..

I am looking forward to the challenge.