🤩September & October 2023
Going to San Francisco, Cross Country, and Battery Software
👋Hello hello! I hope you’re doing fantastically. I’m Sasha, a 15 year old innovator based near Toronto, Canada. Welcome to my monthly newsletter, where I share what’s happened in the past month. :)
🎧Talking to 3 amazing women in tech
First up, Annie and I published 3 (🤯) more episodes!! (Get ready for some shameless plugs👀) We talked to Helen about the future of education, Noel about intrapreneurship, and Chandhana about embracing the done > perfect mindset. If you decide to listen to any of them and have any feedback, feel free to reach out on linkedin - we’d love your take :)
Running Cross Country
We’ve just finished our cross country season! This was the first season I’ve raced in a year - and its safe to say it was definetly not my best 😂. I have a lot more training to do to get into proper racing shape - and I’m hoping to expand beyond just running and do some biking/swimming as well 🚵♀️🏊
Despite that, it was still loads of fun! The most interesting thing I realized is that one of the reasons I do cross country rather than another sport is because of the mental aspect. 🧠Running in general requires you to be mentally tough, but even more so with races. When you’ve been running for 2-3 kilometers already, the last thing you want to do is pick up the pace. So you have to be disciplined enough to keep moving forward.
Running is one of the main ways I build discipline, which helps with doing some dauting task - things that I actually need to do to progress towards goals. 🚀
🔋Exploring battery software
I’ve been diving deeper and deeper into batteries - it’s really interesting how almost anything can be interesting if you go deep enough. I am really interested in the sustainability aspect of lithium ion batteries, so I’m currently looking at how we can increase the lifespan.
An intriguing way I’ve found to do that is using software! Battery management systems, or BMS, essentially act like a caretaker for a battery pack and keeps it within the ideal operating conditions (temperature, charge voltage, etc) to help slow down degradation.
Since I have little to no coding experience, this is going to be an interesting couple months! 🧑💻If you’re interested in learning more about BMS, you can check out this article I wrote recently 😊
Winning the TKS hackathon
Activate hosted a focus hackathon in which we were paired with people working in similar fields as us. Theo, Viola, Jens, Dhruv and I were together, and it was an excellent team in my opinion. We were all super interested in energy, particularly energy storage.
We realized that simulation was a great way to speed up innovation in the battery industry. It prevents costly experiments needing to be run every time something needs to be tested. However, there is only simulation software for lithium based batteries.
While lithium batteries are the industry standard, other battery chemistries have loads of potential as well, particularly sodium ion batteries. But because there is no simulation software, the development of those chemistries is being limited.
We designed a software to simulate any type of battery. 🚀
I’m quite proud of what we came up with, and it solves a very important and niche problem in the industry as well. You can listen to Theo pitch here, and check out our memo (which explains more of the technical details) here!
Attending 2E: A teen camp hosted by 1517 in San Francisco
This was by far the best part of these two months, and perhaps even the whole year. Around late August, Navid (founder of TKS) posted in our slack that 1517 was hosting a teen camp.
He literally linked a substack post, and that was it. To apply, we had to email 1517 answering a couple questions.
I sent off the email, and didn’t really think anything of it for about 2 weeks. Then, I got an email saying I had been chosen to go! I was EXTATIC to say the least - I’ve found a bunch of people I connect with through TKS, but I’ve had barely any in-person interaction. Any type of fellowship, I was 100% going to go! And not to mention this one was in SAN FRANCISCO!!!! 🤩
I could not believe it was real. I got to the airport on October 5th and still could not believe that I was travelling alone across the country. We arrived to Hidden Villa, which is kind of like a reserve, and wandered around the property until we found where we were staying, which was a bunch of cabins and a main building nestled in between mountains. It was absolutely stunning.
Maximizing serendipity, dropping all barriers, and on being “disciplined”
One of the things I took away from this trip is to maximize serendipity. The reason I applied in the first place was because I just thought “why not?” One of the best things you can do, especially when you are young, is to try a ton of stuff. [1]
From 2E specifically, I learned that I absolutely love to travel - especially with people in tech. Previously I had thought I didn’t like travel. My friend told me this once - what you like can (and probably will) change over time.
In San Francisco, we visited 5 startups, and went to a networking event, which was the perfect opportunity for serendipity. But the interesting thing was how much of a difference being in a tech hub like SF makes.
I live in a small town where there is not much innovation, but in SF there are literally self driving cars everywhere - we actually saw one that was stuck 🤣. There are so many people doing interesting things, and there are a ton of events you can go to to meet those people. I wish I was more intentional about talking to every single person we met.
Another thing I wish I had done is to drop all barriers and assumptions. I remember one night, Ryan and some others wanted to go on a night hike. I said no, because it was about 1am (logical choice, no?). But now, I really wished I had gone with them - and they told me I’d regret it too.
This brings up something I’ve been toying with recently: should you be disciplined or try to enjoy yourself? If I was “disciplined” while at 2E, I wouldn’t have made so many of the amazing memories and friends I did (1am conversations just hit different 💪). But on the other hand, I don’t think staying up until 1am every day is feasible.
What I’ve come to now is the quote “work hard, play hard.” I really don’t think life would be so amazing if we optimized for pleasure and what feels easy all the time (Easy decisions = hard life, hard decisions = easy life). But at the same time, if you are always delaying gratification, what are you waiting for?
We need authentic connections to be fulfilled
I’ve heard all this stuff about how humans are tribe animals and we depend on connection and blah blah blah. But hearing something doesn’t necessarily mean you internalize it.
I can’t remember the last time I felt so alive other than that weekend I went to 2E. And I am absolutely positive it was because of the people. The people who were there are the reason I have all these wonderful memories: from going on a pitch black run up a mountain to 1am conversations about the most random stuff, to listening to French rap in Mike’s car - these are all things I hope I don’t ever forget.
All in all, it was one of the best weekends ever - I met a bunch of people who I can truly connect to and relate to, which is so unbelievably special (s/o to everyone there, love you guys🫶). Another huge thanks to the 1517 fund, specifically Danielle, Mike, Haley, Harry and Zak - the best hosts we could have ever asked for :)
Media Recommendations
Substack is yelling at me that I’m approaching the email limit (💀), but I’ll do this really quick:
📕Paper Belt on Fire by Michael Gibson
Michael was one of our hosts at 2E, and he’s amazing. I am just about finished his book, and I am absolutely blown away. The story of founding the Thiel Fellowship alongside Peter Thiel is absolutely captivating. Michael is also an amazing writer - cannot recommend the book enough. He has such an interesting way of looking at things that’s completely changed my perspective on so many things. To name a few: measuring worth by hours invested, university, and how to approach education.
With that, thank you so much for reading. I hope you took something away from this, or that you at least laughed at the last photo in this newsletter (👀). Stay obsessed :)
-Sasha
ps - Happy Halloween 🎃
aw this makes me miss our sf trip to 2e. literally such an fun time