One critique I got of the MIT Challenge was that I should have taken the classes over the normal four years, instead of twelve months. The naïve version of this critique was to argue that I should do the classes the way MIT students do—full time over a period of four years. But this criticism […]
How I’m Learning Spanish
I’m reaching the halfway point in Spain, the first of four countries, in my year without speaking English. I wanted to take this opportunity to reflect on what I’ve been doing to learn Spanish, what’s worked well and what hasn’t. I want to stress that this article is intended to be descriptive rather than prescriptive. […]






