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Growing up, my favorite season was spring, as life reemerged after a long winter and the world greened up. Now, I find fall the most inspiring. The humidity and bugs of summer abate, colors abound, the sky reemerges through the treetops as the leaves drop.

This weekend was spectacular. I went for a bike ride for the first time since grant deadlines began in August and took some hills without any trouble, following some pointers from Andrew. I enjoyed the exercise and the fantastic weather.

Today’s New York Times includes an OpEd piece consisting of several short pieces of advice from doctoral students to incoming freshmen which apply to all of us.

Somewhere in your childhood is a gaping hole. Fill this hole.

—Tim Novikoff, PhD student in applied mathematics at Cornell

Never been much of a leader? Try forming a club or a band

—Tim Novikoff

Devices have become security blankets. Take the time to wean yourself.

—Christine Smallwood, PhD student in English and American literature at Columbia

Remember to take some time away from campus — from the demands of schoolwork and the trappings of the college social life.

—Willie X. Lin, MFA creative writing student at Washington University in St. Louis

Ran across this striking photo-montage while reading Edward Tufte’s Visual Explanations.

El Lissitzky, Self Portrait: The Constructor, 1924

I never would have thought of ubiquitous google access as a curiosity killer, but this short piece in today’s New York Times Magazine points out how instant answers to virtually everything can blunt the “productive frustration” of having unanswered questions.

For Kevin Kelly’s article Achieving Techno-Literacy in today’s New York Times Magazine:

• Every new technology will bite back. The more powerful its gifts, the more powerfully it can be abused. Look for its costs.

• Technologies improve so fast you should postpone getting anything you need until the last second. Get comfortable with the fact that anything you buy is already obsolete.

• Before you can master a device, program or invention, it will be superseded; you will always be a beginner. Get good at it.

• Be suspicious of any technology that requires walls. If you can fix it, modify it or hack it yourself, that is a good sign.

• The proper response to a stupid technology is to make a better one, just as the proper response to a stupid idea is not to outlaw it but to replace it with a better idea.

• Every technology is biased by its embedded defaults: what does it assume?

• Nobody has any idea of what a new invention will really be good for. The crucial question is, what happens when everyone has one?

• The older the technology, the more likely it will continue to be useful.

• Find the minimum amount of technology that will maximize your options.