Steve Minutillo :: messy-78messy things

Aaron Swartz is at Stanford now, and is posting his experiences day by day (and by night). They include gems like this:

Slightly tired of trying to meet new people like I’m told, I decide to sit alone at one table, in front of another empty table. I convince myself that I am not being anti-social but trying to attract the type of geniuses who are borderline autistic. The gambit doesn’t work, everyone walks past me to sit at the empty table. Maybe no one at Stanford is borderline autistic.

And this:

Yet, out of my desire to serve you, I decided to try to further investigate by attending a gathering known as a “party”.

[...]

Inside the party, the clear focus was on the dancing. Teenagers moving their bodies in bizarre and vaguely rhythmic positions in close proximity to one another. I’d seen the practice frequently enough on TV, so on one level I knew what to expect, but on another it was wholly bizarre. It was like watching brownian motion or a complex screensaver, it’s completely meaningless and random but it’s also complicated enough that you don’t look away.

By the way, somebody in the area should totally go over there and help him out with his filing cabinet.

I take the morning off to go shopping. I buy a filing cabinet and get it as far as the door to the dorm before I realize I have no way of getting it up the stairs to my room. I know I should ask someone to help, but my disorder, which I have recently diagnosed as a surfeit of empathy, prevents me from imposing. The file cabinet now sits quietly outside. Apparently no one can figure out how to steal it yet.

I actually would be surprised if somebody hasn’t shown up already.