A guest post by Henry White. Progress report on my boss at VSL...

 

As you might know my boss, Kirk, is usually as healthy as a ghost shark. Yesterday he went in to surgery to get a huge, recalcitrant kidney stone demolished by a high tech laser. He begged the doctors not to anesthetize him but rather to let him bring a camera into the O.R. to record every exciting minute. The request was denied. As was the request for the pre-op extra large latté with three extra shots of espresso. 

He was a bit groggy from the anesthesia when he got back home but wanted to "take a few laps around the neighborhood" and he was already tying his running shoes when the VSL chairwoman of the board stepped in and put a stop to it. Chagrined and multiple times denied he comforted himself with a large carton of Trader Joe's (amazing) Chocolate Mint Ice Cream. And then watched educational television from England old episodes of "The Big Bang Theory" intermixed with old James Bond movies...

It's less than 24 hours since the procedure but he already seems overwhelmed by having to "take it easy for a few days.." When I descended into the cavernous underground offices of VSL this morning at 7 a.m. he was already at his desk re-writing some Anthropic LLM code to make it quicker, neater and more proficient for his personal projects. And he had already sent a few suggestions about neutrino communications to a friend at Space-X who ..... quite frankly was stunned by the elegance of K's solutions. 

He seems to have made an effective and spirited overall recovery but every once in a while I hear a howl of agony from his bathroom as he attempts to pee. Screaming, "This too shall pass!!!" 

Argh. 

He should be well enough to write his own stuff tomorrow....   Best, H.W.