About Me

I am a human commonly known by the name of Jacob O. L. Dean. I have recently been trying to make a point of including the two middle initials (which stand for Oscar and Landsberg respectively) because I think it makes me sound more like a fantasy novelist and thus enlivens slightly my otherwise somewhat dull appellation. I am a social democrat, an introvert, a Reform Jew, an atheist, an armchair media analyst, a spaceflight enthusiast, a feminist, a history nerd, a humanist, a fan of an eclectic variety of stories, and a player of tabletop RPGs. I have almost no objections to the nature of my upbringing, and currently feel that my life will basically be a success if I can live it as well as my parents have done in most respects. As someone who generally enjoys pondering and debating ideas, I am hopeful that this class will prove both fun and enlightening.

Sacramento has been my home for my entire life, and with the exception of a barely-remembered few years at the beginning I have inhabited the same house throughout. My father teaches animation at Monterey Trail High School in Elk Grove, while my mother worked as a health policy lobbyist for nonprofits for much of her career and is now part of the California department which regulates health plans. In my opinion, their most notable success in parenting my younger brother and me was in teaching us that even as children we had the ability to come to our own conclusions about the world and express those convictions freely, and that such expression was always worthy of respect.

Given my significant luck in the conditions of my existence so far, my biggest obstacles are internal, and tend to manifest most strongly in my social interactions. I often require an irrationally high degree of evidence to trust that other people enjoy spending time with me, and I tend to judge very harshly the ways that I interact with others. However, I do consciously try to correct for these biases, and I have managed to find some rather awesome friends despite them. Another issue that I expect to become more pressing in the future is that because I am already quite interested in the academic subjects which have so far made up the bulk of my work as a student, I have not found school to be particularly difficult and thus have relatively little experience pushing myself to overcome major challenges. I have developed useful intellectual skills, but I am unsure whether I have the resilience to apply them effectively in more difficult circumstances.

I am currently a senior at McClatchy High School, a disgraceful institution whose administration is alternates between laughably incompetent and shockingly corrupt. Once I am free of it I currently hope to study astronautical engineering, because out of all my interests I am most passionate about the expansion of humanity beyond Earth. I wake up early to watch SpaceX launch livestreams, and pore over NASA appropriations bills and requests for proposals to better understand the policy and engineering of space exploration. I also love experiencing and analyzing unconventional stories, ranging from the webcomics Order of the Stick and Homestuck to the web serials Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality and Worm to the animated shows Steven Universe and Revolutionary Girl Utena to the video game Undertale and the book series A Song of Ice and Fire. I am perpetually curious, but even more enjoyable than asking questions is explaining something that fascinates me to an engaged and inquisitive listener.

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