#127: Human/Computer Language, Rationality vs. Intuition, Women in Tech and Job Interview Tips with Xuan

Kia Ora, Nihao and hello! Welcome to the Chiwi Journal Podcast.

My guest today is Xuan. Xuan's footprints covered from a small village in China to the capital city Beijing then moved to DC and NYC and now settled in LDN. She studied English lit, Linguistics and Philosophy at university, trained herself in programming, and currently works as a software engineer.

We discussed:

1. How does exchanging poetry every day help us find beauty and truth during a lockdown?
2. The encounter of divided brain theory and how we have become enslaved to an account of things dominated by the brain’s left hemisphere?
3. The journey from studying human language and philosophy to computer language and machine learning
4. Will get rid of emotion help us to deliver information in a more accurate way like computer code?
5. The relationship between time and language
6. Have you ever used your rational mind to structure your intuitional decision?
7. Are humans doomed to be misunderstood due to the nature of language and communications?
8. How does writing online generate the serendipity for people to meet IRL?
9. How have women in tech evolved in those years? How can an individual do to help get more girls into technology?
10. How to prepare for a job interview? A story of finding a tech job without any working experience during lockdown

Books and links mentioned in this episode:

• A Paradise of Poems
• Infinite Loop Podcast with Tom Morgan — All you Need is Love? (EP.74)
• The Matter With Things by Iain McGilchrist
• Responsive Web Design
• Neuralink
• San Pedro Retreat
• Self Authoring
• Flowism
• Yi Jing (易经）
• Dao De Jing (道德经）