Rishi Jaitly
@jaitly
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place/purpose. @virginia_tech. chair @NatlHumanities. founder @timesbridge @MichiganCorps. led Twitter 🌏. @OpenAI @KnightFdn @Google @PeerForward @Princeton.
Virginia, via NYC/CT/NJ
Joined April 2010
Windows, Before Mirrors: What if Extrospection, not Introspection, is the Political Superpower of the Future? My Latest in Starting Points.
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@justahomemaker thought you might appreciate my latest essay from earlier this week. many thanks again for your kind words in November!
Windows, Before Mirrors: What if Extrospection, not Introspection, is the Political Superpower of the Future? My Latest in Starting Points.
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@jonfavs hi Jon, here’s an essay i published yesterday anchored in this question: what’s the political superpower of the future? harkens back to your thoughtful February 2016 piece in @thedailybeast. hope you might have a quick read.
Windows, Before Mirrors: What if Extrospection, not Introspection, is the Political Superpower of the Future? My Latest in Starting Points.
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RT @ivanmorozov: Meanwhile, in Blacksburg, VA, on the campus of @virginia_tech ... 2025.01.05.
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A poem for New Year’s Eve, courtesy @jeffreywetzler, who asks: “Has this year changed you?” “Questions Before Dark” by Jeanne Lohmann Day ends, and before sleep when the sky dies down, consider your altered state: has this day changed you? Are the corners sharper or rounded off? Did you live with death? Make decisions that quieted? Find one clear word that fit? At the sun’s midpoint did you notice a pitch of absence, bewilderment that invites the possible? What did you learn from things you dropped and picked up and dropped again? Did you set a straw parallel to the river, let the flow carry you downstream?
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RT @RalphNader: Jimmy Carter was the last president to actively open the government for engagement by citizen groups. Right after his Novem…
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I appreciate this, Vivek. Born in New York, I primarily grew up in Greenwich, Connecticut, in a wholly Caucasian environment as the son of Indian-immigrant physicians. I attended Princeton, served as a Trustee there, and have had leadership roles at Google, Twitter and OpenAI, alongside some entrepreneur-ing and public service as well. Growing up, I leaned the value of good grades - yes. But I also learned to embrace, even if subconsciously, the Judeo-Christian values that undergird our nation: generosity, graciousness and almost a God-inspired calling to unlock the singular light inside ourselves, and others. The fuzzy felt just as important as the techie. Said another way, it’s not merely “excellence” that’s shaped any success I’ve had, but also something ethereal - a kind of ethereal, as you often so beautifully remind us Vivek, only known in America: a culture that prides itself on authenticity and agency over acquiescence and acceptance. And in this AI-ascendant era, with more automation looming, it may just be *this* - a way of life in which, yes, the prose of American achievement matters but so does the poetry of American authenticity - that ensures our continued individual and national ascent.
The reason top tech companies often hire foreign-born & first-generation engineers over “native” Americans isn’t because of an innate American IQ deficit (a lazy & wrong explanation). A key part of it comes down to the c-word: culture. Tough questions demand tough answers & if we’re really serious about fixing the problem, we have to confront the TRUTH: Our American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long (at least since the 90s and likely longer). That doesn’t start in college, it starts YOUNG. A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math olympiad champ, or the jock over the valedictorian, will not produce the best engineers. A culture that venerates Cory from “Boy Meets World,” or Zach & Slater over Screech in “Saved by the Bell,” or ‘Stefan’ over Steve Urkel in “Family Matters,” will not produce the best engineers. (Fact: I know *multiple* sets of immigrant parents in the 90s who actively limited how much their kids could watch those TV shows precisely because they promoted mediocrity…and their kids went on to become wildly successful STEM graduates). More movies like Whiplash, fewer reruns of “Friends.” More math tutoring, fewer sleepovers. More weekend science competitions, fewer Saturday morning cartoons. More books, less TV. More creating, less “chillin.” More extracurriculars, less “hanging out at the mall.” Most normal American parents look skeptically at “those kinds of parents.” More normal American kids view such “those kinds of kids” with scorn. If you grow up aspiring to normalcy, normalcy is what you will achieve. Now close your eyes & visualize which families you knew in the 90s (or even now) who raise their kids according to one model versus the other. Be brutally honest. “Normalcy” doesn’t cut it in a hyper-competitive global market for technical talent. And if we pretend like it does, we’ll have our asses handed to us by China. This can be our Sputnik moment. We’ve awaken from slumber before & we can do it again. Trump’s election hopefully marks the beginning of a new golden era in America, but only if our culture fully wakes up. A culture that once again prioritizes achievement over normalcy; excellence over mediocrity; nerdiness over conformity; hard work over laziness. That’s the work we have cut out for us, rather than wallowing in victimhood & just wishing (or legislating) alternative hiring practices into existence. I’m confident we can do it. 🇺🇸 🇺🇸
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RT @RoyalFamily: “Across the Commonwealth, we are held together by a willingness to listen to each other, to learn from one another and to…
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@profnaren @ShengzheXu @RaquibYousuf you made history in Arlington, and you will undoubtedly make more history in Alexandria! all the best, Naren 🙏🏼🏫🚀
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RT @VTSandsman: Virginia Tech will not be the same without Nikki Giovanni, but we are forever uplifted because of her.
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“What if more of us chose curiosity?” Thank you @jeffreywetzler for this call to commit to our collective wisdom and the reminder that learning, actually, is all around.
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RT @FiringLineShow: "It's deeper than civility and it's even deeper than respect," progressive @CornelWest says of his bond with conservati…
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@ClintHill_SS Clint, you are an inspiration, and an example of the very best of our country. Thank you for sharing your story with grace and humility - and for inspiring all of us to live, love and lead with honor. @lisa_mccubbin
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RT @JFKLibraryFdn: These are the last lines of the last speech ever typed for President Kennedy, intended for remarks on November 22, 1963…
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