july 2023

a new bike, new lsat problem and goodbyes

Hello! Summer is slipping away too quickly.

Also, weird thought I saw on Instagram earlier: You only get 75 summers, 80 if you’re lucky. I only have around 50 left in my case. And only 5 summers left in my 20s. Weird.

bike

I want a new bike because mine doesn’t have any gears. It’s a single speed, steel frame that I’ve had since I was 16.

I don’t hate it. In fact, it’s one of the most reliable things I’ve ever owned. It’s been from Kingston to Halifax to Victoria with me. The few accidents I’ve had riding it were all my own fault.

But the more biking I’ve done this summer, the more I’ve realized how needlessly difficult I’ve been making my life. You know, hills and stuff.

That said, this bike buying nonsense could’ve waited until next year. I’m a reasonably fit person and biking up a hill won’t kill me.

But I messed up and tried out a new bike.

Despite the distracting kid-like colour palette, the ride was incredible. It was a taste of greatness. It was so light, the shifting was so smooth, the brakes were so sharp.

My bike is practical, reliable and solid (heavy). It probably won’t get stolen since the lock is worth more than the bike.

But getting on it afterwards felt like moving backwards in time. It felt like going back to a Camry after test driving a Porsche. I’m now determined to upgrade.

This is where I start debating between

practicality vs aesthetics

The sensible upgrade would be a gravel/touring bike.

These bikes have light frames and wide tires that make them comfortable on both road and gravel. They usually have mounting points to install a rack for storage. All that and they’re fast.

I’d qualify these bikes as the practical upgrade. Versatile bikes are good. Who knows, maybe I’ll do a big gravel trip one day?!

On the other hand…

I’ve been looking at road bikes recently. Old ones. Like 90s, steel frame, drop handlebars.

I’m especially charmed by the angled quill stem some of them have:

These old road bikes are built for the road, and the road only (duh). The tires are thin and usually lacking any tread, so you’re less comfortable on gravel. They often don’t support mounting a rack. And according to a guy at a bike shop I talked to, they aren’t that much quicker on the road than gravel bikes.

I’d qualify these bikes as the aesthetic upgrade.

So the sensible choice is to buy a gravel bike because it’s more versatile, practical and probably just as fast.

Except…

I really like how old road bikes look!!!

I think thin tires are prettier than thick tires. And storage racks look bulky and cumbersome! And I like my quill stems!

I think I’d rather have a less practical bike that I’m more excited to ride than a more practical bike that I’m less excited to ride.

Why am I writing about this?? Probably to justify a semi-irrational choice I’m about to make. I’ll keep you updated.

logic games

I realize this audience might be tired of my mentioning the LSAT every month. But here we go again.

There are three sections on the LSAT:

1. Logical reasoning

2. Reading comprehension

3. Logic games

All the questions I’ve put in the newsletter so far are logical reasoning questions.

Reading comprehension is boring and you can guess what that consists of.

Logic games are interesting because they’re a bit like riddles and a bit computer sciencey. And a big part of them is making diagrams.

diagramming

I’m going to walk through how I’d diagram for this logic game question:

Exactly six workers—Faith, Gus, Hannah, Juan, Kenneth, and Lisa—will travel to a business convention in two cars—car 1 and car 2. Each car must carry at least two of the workers, one of whom will be assigned to drive. For the entire trip, the workers will comply with an assignment that also meets the following constraints:

1. Either Faith or Gus must drive the car in which Hannah travels.

2. Either Faith or Kenneth must drive the car in which Juan travels.

3. Gus must travel in the same car as Lisa.

The first step is to diagram the structure of the problem:

We have our workers up top and our two cars in two columns. Each car takes a minimum of two workers and the first row is reserved for the driver.

(We aren’t labelling the two columns because there isn’t a difference between the two cars, so the ordering of the columns doesn’t matter)

We can also infer that there can never be more than four people in one car. If that were the case, our split would be 5 - 1 which means that we can’t fulfill the minimum of two in the other car! So it’s either 4 - 2 or 3 - 3.

Now we can illustrate the rules of the game in symbolic notation:

So it reads like:

1. If H is present, then F or G is driving

2. If J is present, then F or K is driving

3. G and L must be together

From here, we could go on and answer the questions associated with this setup. But we could also try and figure out the possible situations for this setup. As in, what possible worlds could exist? Let’s try doing this.

I think we should start by considering where H and J could be. If they are in the same car, then we know F must be driving. Otherwise, H and J are separated and we can infer the possible drivers from the rules.

In our left world, we can infer where the group of G and L must go. Putting them in the left car would mean that we have five workers in that one car, which is impossible! So they must belong in right car:

(Since we don’t know which of them is driving yet, I put a line meaning they can switch positions in the car)

Our right world is a bit messy. Let’s try and clean it up by creating more worlds. When F is driving H, then K must be driving J. When F is driving J then G must be driving H. And our only other possibility is when G is driving H and K is driving J:

Okay! Three new worlds!

We can infer where L must go since it always travels with G. And we can throw in the leftover variables up top:

This is a great setup! We’ve basically solved this game! Now we can go answer the questions (which are here if you’re curious).

goodbyes

I had to say goodbye to two special people this month. They are moving to Montreal for school in September! It really sucks that they’ll be so far away.

Dear Elizabeth and Kai, I’m wishing you both the best out there. I think you will fit perfectly into that city and I cannot wait to visit soon.

Kai and Elizabeth pictured

conclusion

Anyways, here’s a weird conclusion GPT came up with. It’s probably best to read it out loud in a surfer dude tone of voice:

This summer? A total rollercoaster—from getting hyped about a bike, nailing those LSAT brain-benders, to the feels of those goodbyes. As the season changes, I'm just here thinking: life's all about the cycles, right? High fives to all those moments that made us feel alive. Not every shot's gonna be a slam dunk, but that's just how the cookie crumbles. Here's to living it up and enjoying the ride!

That’s it! See you next month!