Who am I?
I am Ben. I’m a PhD student in machine learning and statistics at CMU. I study things like sequential statistics, e-values, and concentration of measure.
I am one half of Increments, a podcast that ostensibly has something to do with applied philosophy. I am one third of Do You Even Lit?, a book club of repentant nonfiction zealots who, sobbing and soiling ourselves, are slowly crawling into the world of literary classics.
Why Steps to Phaeacia?
The mythical island of Phaeacia (also called Scherie or Scheria) is introduced in Homer’s Odyssey. It is peaceful, prosperous, and advanced. The Phaeacians excel in art, athletics, storytelling, craftsmanship, and science—they are expert sailors with ships that can navigate without captains and move at supernatural speeds.
Phaeacians exhibit the virtue of xenia, the ancient Greek concept of hospitality. Phaeacia is where Odysseus finally finds sympathetic listeners and is helped with goodwill on his journey home. It’s a place of intellectual exchange, storytelling, and, of course, perseverance after Poseidon personally shipwrecks you for blinding his son the cyclops with a wooden stake.
“Steps to” Phaeacia refers to a process of incremental improvement. While we can and should aim for an abundant, enlightened society, we’ll never arrive at a utopia. There is always another problem to solve. But steps do go somewhere—things get better and progress is possible.
Why not Steps to Scheria? This has alliteration after all, and doesn’t alliteration always beat no alliteration? Yes, yes it does. But I consulted with a friend and, being unfamiliar with Greek mythology, he said that Scheria sounded like “some kind of irritable bowel condition.” And that put the kybosh on that idea.
