Steven Larky

Avid road cyclist for fun and fundraising. I support education as the great equalizer. Unabashed Zionist. Opinions are mine.

[Steven Larky @SoCalEnthu]

America built the world’s greatest research engine. Now it’s shrinking. https://t.co/gFaXVRfqeS #CuriosityOnAMission

[Steven Larky @SoCalEnthu]

Watch “Curiosity on a Mission” on #Vimeo https://t.co/DcSsPYNmDS

[Steven Larky @SoCalEnthu]

Thanks to Jonny Caspari for making this photo available on @unsplash 🎁 https://t.co/520V5Cvgxq

[Steven Larky @SoCalEnthu]

Thanks to Mitchell Luo for making this photo available on @unsplash 🎁 https://t.co/twTUVaZvNy

[Steven Larky @SoCalEnthu]

Thanks to Vladimir Mokry for making this photo available on @unsplash 🎁 https://t.co/bVgpyQfwMC

[Steven Larky @SoCalEnthu]

Thanks to Huy Phan for making this photo available on @unsplash 🎁 https://t.co/KFTVMYLQe2

[Sam Parr @thesamparr]

The guy who invented Peeps has one of the most interesting stores I’ve ever heard:

Sam Born was a Russian Jewish immigrant who studied to become a rabbi in Ukraine.

- Came to America. Made candy instead.
- Named his company "Just Born", a pun on his last name plus the fact he made everything fresh daily.
- In 1953, it took 27 hours to make one tray of Peeps with 80 workers spooning marshmallow into molds by hand.
- Sam's son Bob automated it down to 6 minutes. Same machine design still runs today.

Today they make 2 billion Peeps a year.

All out of Bethlehem, PA.

#1 non-chocolate Easter candy for 20+ years.

Russian Jewish immigrant studying to be a rabbi accidentally builds most iconic Easter candy in America out of a town called Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

Maybe the most American story I've ever heard.

[Steven Larky @SoCalEnthu]

How to Prevent a Repeat of the Gaza Narrative in Lebanon - @WashInstitute https://t.co/JYeySm96Sp

[University of Austin (UATX) @uaustinorg]

To: Admitted Students on Ivy Decision Day
From: UATX

Congratulations. Getting in was hard and you should be proud. Now here’s some unsolicited advice so you don’t waste the next four years.

Go to class. We know this sounds obvious. But as the New York Times reported recently, Harvard students routinely skip class, rarely speak up when they're there, and focus on their devices instead of the discussion. Faculty say few students do enough preparation to contribute meaningfully. The average college student spends about 20 hours a week on class and studying combined. At UATX, we aim for 50. That’s the difference between a part-time commitment and a full-time job. You (or your parents) are about to spend upwards of $90K a year. If you don't show up, you're paying roughly $250 per skipped lecture for the privilege of sleeping in.

Read the books yourself. Your generation is the first to arrive at college post-literate — raised on short-form video, dependent on algorithms, and increasingly incapable of sitting with a difficult text long enough to let it change your mind. Ninety percent of college students use AI academically. This makes you more reliant on the authority of others. Most professors will also stand between you and the text. They’ll tell you what Marx “really meant,” what Aristotle “failed to see,” as though an academic in 2026 has outsmarted minds that shaped civilizations. The good professors do the opposite: they put you in front of the book and they work with you to find what a great mind has to teach us directly. Find those professors, and read everything yourself.

Say what you actually think. Seventy-three percent of conservative students report withholding their political views in class out of fear their grades will suffer. Our advice isn't political; it's intellectual. If you spend four years learning to say what's expected instead of what's true, you’ll graduate roughly where you started — just older, more credentialed, and more practiced at self-censorship. One study finds that nearly half of students show no measurable gains in “critical thinking” after two years in college. Keep this in mind as you make decisions about which professors to take and how to do your assignments. Taking a small hit on your paper to gain integrity and wisdom is usually worth it.

Ask for real grades. Sixty percent of Harvard undergraduate grades are now A’s. Twenty-five years ago, it was 20%. It got so bad that the legendary Harvard professor, Harvey Mansfield, started giving students two grades: the official one for their transcript, and a private one reflecting what they actually earned. He called the official grades “ironic.” So here's a suggestion: Take your A, but also ask your professors for a “Mansfield grade” so that you know where you stand. And don’t avoid difficult courses to keep your transcript clean for law school.

Get work experience before you graduate. Forty-two percent of recent college graduates are working jobs that don't require a degree. Many employers are projecting the next few years to be the worst college grad job market in years. A degree alone — even from an Ivy — is not a job guarantee. Seek out apprenticeships, internships, and real work starting freshman year. The students at UATX are connected with entrepreneurs and business leaders from day one. Many will graduate with four years of work experience alongside their degree. You can build something similar at your school, but you'll have to do it yourself.

Understand how debt shapes your life. If you're paying full freight or even half, do the math with your eyes open. Your decision to take on debt will quietly reshape the trajectory of your adult life through countless small surrenders: the job you take because it’s safe instead of starting the company. The city you choose to live in. The relationship you delay and the kids you don’t have. For women, a $1,000 increase in student loan debt lowers the odds of marriage by 2% per month in the first four years after graduation. None of that shows up in the college brochure. If you're going to take on debt, treat it like the constraint it is from day one: save aggressively and make sure every dollar is buying something that will actually compound in your favor.

Find the people who take school seriously. The best thing about a great school isn't the lectures or the library. It's the handful of professors and students who are genuinely there to learn — who read ahead, argue in good faith, and push you to be sharper. Find them. UATX is a small community of those who seek a serious education. At a larger university, you have to build this community yourself.
*
The most dangerous thing about an elite university is that it is very easy to do nothing for four years and still come out looking successful. The transcript will say you excelled. The diploma with the fancy crest will open certain doors. Your parents will be proud. And yet you will have coasted — through inflated grades, unread books, and borrowed opinions.

Getting in is an accomplishment. Making the next four years worth it will be harder, and the right decisions will change everything.

We wish you luck.

[Steven Larky @SoCalEnthu]

Legislation in Israel would criminalize egalitarian religious activities at the Kotel.  Expressing our Jewish identity in Israel should not be a crime.

Learn more: https://t.co/F0kDzTWc1z

[Reverend Jordan Wells @WellsJorda89710]

🚨To every Black person tempted by the antisemitic wave sweeping right now:🚨

Back when white mobs lynched us in the streets...
When we had no money, no power, and literally no movement...

Who stood with us? Who risked everything?

The Jews.

They weren't just allies—they were family in the fight.
- Jewish leaders co-founded the NAACP in 1909 and funded/led it for generations when no one else would.
- When Dr. King and our people were arrested, beaten, jailed—Jewish lawyers defended us for free, and Jewish money paid bail bonds and court fees while others turned away.
- In Freedom Summer '64, half the white volunteers risking death to register Black voters? Jewish.
- Rabbi Heschel marched arm-in-arm with MLK in Selma—our struggles linked forever.

Without their blood, treasure, solidarity, and courage—there is no Civil Rights Movement as we know it. No Voting Rights Act. No dream realized.

That's why I stand with the Jews.
They were our only true friends when this country hated us—when doors slammed shut and ropes hung high. They showed up, bled, and built with us.

So to my people joining this demonic, divisive hate today:

Pause. Remember. Honor the alliance that freed us.

Our histories are bound. Our freedoms were won together.

Betray that, and you betray the very martyrs who died for our rights.

Black-Jewish unity forged the dream. Don't let hate destroy it.

I stand with my Jewish brothers and sisters—always. ✊🏾🤝✡️🇮🇱

Repost if truth > trends. If gratitude > division. If history matters.

#BlackJewishAlliance #RememberOurAllies #StandTogether #CivilRightsTruth #NoToAntisemitism

[Steven Larky @SoCalEnthu]

Personal tech, social media, and the “decline of humanity”
In Compton Lecture at MIT, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt warns of dramatic global decay in cognition, attention spans, and civic life, and urges curbs to tech use.
https://t.co/Q5TGyDzujw

[Steven Larky @SoCalEnthu]

https://t.co/c0lKPqZC7N

[Steven Larky @SoCalEnthu]

A Meta AI security researcher said an OpenClaw agent ran amok on her inbox  https://t.co/ii9pHdRS6I via @techcrunch

[Steven Larky @SoCalEnthu]

@SouthwestAir seat pocket full of trash as I board flight 2125 to SAN. Assigned seat, can't move to one that's been cleaned?!

[Steven Larky @SoCalEnthu]

The analysis of the judge's ruling is quite enlightening - https://t.co/DK8ooBDvts

[Steven Larky @SoCalEnthu]

https://t.co/glk1G1dwcC

[Steven Larky @SoCalEnthu]

I'm advocating with @Hadassah to urge Congress to condemn conflict-related sexual violence. https://t.co/reczqIefd6

[Steven Larky @SoCalEnthu]

https://t.co/5EiUzWBIIP
Maybe not a good idea to follow the latest 'recommendations' from the Sec HHS!

[Steven Larky @SoCalEnthu]

📢 Join the campaign and tell Meta & Facebook: remove antisemitic terror praise FAST — and enforce your own policies. https://t.co/75vtDoEAz5