Beyond the desk

Miscellaneous

A few things I enjoy when I am not thinking about proofs, data, or the next deadline.

Cooking, especially food from home

I love cooking, particularly Shanghainese and Huaiyang cuisine. There are not many places around Chapel Hill where I can find the flavors I grew up with in Hangzhou, so I have gradually learned to make them myself. My kitchen experiments range from slow-braised classics to seafood and sweets—usually with plenty to share.

A few dishes from my kitchen:

Cards, tiles & Go

I am an enthusiastic Guandan (掼蛋) player—a fast-paced, two-deck, partnership climbing game popular in eastern China—and I like to think I am pretty good at it. I also enjoy Texas Hold’em, and my wins have outnumbered my losses so far.

Mahjong is another favorite: Hangzhou, Riichi (Japanese), Sichuan, Shanghai, and Hong Kong styles, among others. I also play Go (围棋); I reached amateur 1-dan more than a decade ago, although I have not trained systematically since.

Playing with probabilities

Sometimes I experiment with North Carolina Education Lottery scratch-offs, treating myself—half jokingly—as a human learning algorithm hunting for patterns and sensible stopping rules. It gives me an excuse to think about finite prize inventories, conditional expectations, and why a streak is not a reliable estimate of an edge.

My results have been positive so far this year (enough to cover a few months of rent), though I know luck plays a big role. I built a little scratch-off simulation website ↗ featuring two games; perhaps I will add more when time permits.