april 2026
Hello and welcome. I hope youāre having a great start to the summer.
Check out my backflip on grass.
follow up to law school
About two and a half years ago, I started thinking about applying to law school, then applied. About two years ago, I got rejected.
Writing about that rejection, I said:
At the end of the day, I want to choose whether I go to law school, not the admissions committee.
To make that choice, I would need to get accepted. But I did not apply again. The following is a reflection on why.
reason 1: busy and lazy
Obvious and self-explanatory. Despite mostly enjoying the application process, I do have a full-time job, commitments after work, etc.
reason 2: practicality
As awful as it sounds, itās not quite practical for me to pay to go to law school for three years without wanting to become a lawyer. I didnāt see myself practicing law when I first applied, and my desire hasnāt really grown since.
I was (and still am) interested in the law school part. What comes afterwards looks daunting. Building a career as a lawyer means articling, billable hours, passing the bar and working your way up in a firm. It seems that a central tenet is āpaying your duesā which I have a hard time stomaching.
Thatās not to say it wouldnāt be rewarding. Thereās abundant history associated with the practice of law - thatās a big part of why I started considering it. And Iām sure being surrounded by ambitious law students pursuing a similar goal would indoctrinate me to some degree. It would also be cool to say Iām a software engineer who went to law school.
But looking at it from the outside, itās hard to justify - especially since I already have a good job.
reason 3: LLMs
Speaking of, Iāve slowly become more aware of which jobs seem resilient to generative AI. My rough theory is the more reading and writing is involved, the less resilient the job is. Unfortunately, thereās a lot of that involved in lawyering - at least at the junior level.
Importantly, I donāt think that new grads at law firms will be rendered useless, or that law school will be reduced to an exercise in prompting. Iām just assuming that things will not remain the same. LLMs are very good at reading and writing English.
I also think itās possible that LLMs simply remove the monotony, leaving more time for the interesting work. Iām sure that companies like Harvey have coherent, unified theories on how humans will fit into this new picture.
Regardless, the prevalence of LLMs will change how law works, and Iām not sure I feel confident about where I would end up when the dust settles.
reason 4: culinary school
One job I think is resilient to AI is being a chef. Even though there are countless recipes and cooking shows online, ChatGPT canāt cook food. Thatās a job for robots - an industry that Iām confident will move much slower.
After all, Iām not going to give my robot a knife and stove. It doesnāt even have taste buds!!
Perhaps more importantly, thereās something distinctly human about cooking. I think it strikes the right balance of creativity and fine motor skills. Especially when youāre cooking for people you care about. It seems that all the people in my life whom I care about, I want to cook for.
Itās mostly for that reason that my interest has shifted from law school to culinary school.
I struggle with the practicality of this obviously. I want to go to culinary school so Iām better at cooking for my friends and family. The idea of being employed as a cook is still quite foreign - similar to the idea of being employed as a lawyer.
At least culinary school is cheaper.
a dichotomy
Shifting from LSAT logic puzzles to making mayonnaise from scratch feels like an interesting dichotomy. Logic vs emotion. Coolness vs warmth. Itās cool and logical in a lawyerās office; itās hot and emotional in a kitchen.
Itās interesting to consider how my own perception of the world has informed this shift. Cooking is certainly less political than law. Some lawyers get elected and change the rules and principles we live by. Some cooks do that too, but itās less common. Cooks feel like outcasts - lawyers feel like valedictorians.
Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat
Related to the above, I read Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat (a cookbook) which I highly recommend. Here are some tips I gleaned:
- you almost always want a sizzle when you put something in the pan
- acid balances, salt enhances
- fruits that get more sun while growing taste sweeter!
- acid toughens things up (prevents softening/oxidizing)
- baking soda makes things more tender (opposite of acid)
- sauces are usually the source of acid in a meal
- water expands when frozen (relevant for freezing produce)
- simmering > boiling in most cases
- emulsions are anything creamy
- one egg yolk (the emulsifier) can hold 3/4 cups of oil
- butter is a very stable emulsion of fat + water + milk solids
- melting butter breaks the emulsion
- oil > butter for cakes
- the word crispy sells more food than almost any other adjective
- drier ingredients leads to better browning
- less stirring means more browning
^ recipe here
misc
- Ashley got her L this month!!! I am very proud. Expect to see her on the streets of Victoria obeying the law
- We also celebrated our anniversary this month ā„ļø (Point No Point is amazing)
- I completed a CNC course at the Victoria Makerspace. We made name plates.
- Iāve started listening to Canadaland again this month! Here are some eps:
And thatās all I have! see you next month!