re: the US uni admissions essay. it really strikes me on how at every single level of US academia you’re expected to curate a “narrative”. it’s not enough u want to research this strain of fungi. you need to have some weird community connection to it.
in politics i met a lot of people who are like "i'm not a policy person" and they always sort of confuse me because i'm like if you don't kick the tires on the policy yourself how do you know you're fighting for the right thing?