I walked into a Starbucks the other day. While waiting for my Matcha Soy Latte (that’s right), I had a chat with the barista. She’s studying industrial engineering. On the side, she works as a DJ and a barista. She composes her own tracks and has a cool track-record of gigs. She said that “after graduating, I don’t know if I’ll look for an engineering job or continue making music more seriously. I really enjoy both, but for different reasons.”

Polymaths are everywhere. Their stories are close to my heart, too. When I was a teen, I hit a crisis…

“After all, this material progress, in itself so splendid, does not meet any of the real needs of the human race. I read a book the other day which traced the history of mankind from the birth of the solar system to its extinction. There were fifteen or sixteen races of men which in succession rose and fell over periods measured by tens of millions of years. In the end a race of beings was evolved which had mastered nature. A state was created whose citizens lived as long as they chose, enjoyed pleasures and sympathies incomparably wider than our…

When the Soviets installed missiles on Cuban soil in 1962, they were pretty damn sure of what would happen next. To avoid mutual destruction, the US would just warn the Soviets to retire. A nuclear attack from the US would result in themselves being nuked by the Soviets a few minutes later. And if the Soviets attacked the US first, they’d be nuked right back too. So what happened in Cuba? Your history teacher might have given you a fancier explanation, but it’s quite simple — the US warned the Soviets and the Soviets retired. Better than mutually nuking each…