“Chopiniana,” also known as “Les Sylphides,” is a ballet choreographed by Mikhail Fokine, set to music by Frédéric Chopin, and premiered in 1907 as a “romantic reverie”. It’s a ballet blanc—where all ballerinas wear white dresses or tutus. Mariinsky Theatre premiered the ballet in 1907. The music is very beautiful. And the choreography has magic. Fokine’s Chopiniana is an homage to the Romantic era with its white ballet, fleeting arabesques, airy dances of ethereal sylphides and perpetual longing for perfection....

This is the second reading note of paper “Strategic Experimentation with Exponential Bandits”, following the previous post that describes the single-agent basic model: a continuous two-armed bandit: one risky (R) arm + one safe (S) arm. Model: When There Are More Than One Agents Players each have replica two-armed bandits. They share the same prior belief (over whether the Risky arm is good or bad), the same discount rate, and information is public....

This is the reading notes of “Strategic Experimentation with Exponential Bandits” by Godfrey Keller, Sven Rady and Martin Cripps, published in Econometrica, 2025. I think it is a really cool theoretical economic paper, because the math is solid, elegant and inspiring. For more details, please refer to the original paper. The following are notes for the models and and results for reference, if one wants to quicly grasp the intuition....

Brahmn’s music speaks love. And the story goes: [The story] has been pieced together from personal letters between Clara, Brahms, and friends. Robert Schumann was Brahms’ mentor. Brahms got close to Schumann’s wife Clara as Robert was drifting off into madness (likely related to syphilis). Clara and Brahms wrote letters to one another as if lovers, but after Schumann’s death, Brahms left Clara to move on with his career, although they still kept in touch, and were affectionate whenever the met....

Updated my CV and about me page. Goodnight!

I spend the weekend in Los Angeles. UCLA is mountainous. Its campus design has layers and depth. Impressively beautiful. LA is flamboyant, loud, of beautiful, bold contrasts—definitely one of a kind. Beneath the Hollywood glam and tourist traps, there’s a real depth to the city. I walked throught its most diverse neighborhoods in the world—Koreatown, Little Tokyo, Boyle Heights, and the Arts District all have their own unique cultures and communities....

Attending the admitted PhD open house at USC Marshall’s DSO department was an invaluable experience. It was a rare opportunity to engage with multiple faculty members. USC has a beautiful campus located in a delightful and convenient neighborhood. One of the most interesting thing was when I tried to crowdsource representative attributes for a good PhD student by asking everyone the question: What makes a popular job market candidate? Their responses provided a well-rounded view of what it takes to stand out....

I was at the opening night of Cosi Fan Tutte by the LA Opera, March 07 2025 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion theater: The pre-show lecture given by conductor James Conlon, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, featuring the amazing Chandelier. Pro Tips for classical performances, especially grand productions like Ballet and Opera: Arrive early (1 hour+) to attend pre-show lectures, explore the venue, take a glass of wine, or just chill in the bathroom....

Dianping, an affiliate of Meituan, is essentially the monopoly version of China’s Yelp. It primarily serves as a restaurant rating platform where users review their experiences on a five-star scale with optional pictures and videos. From a business perspective, it allows sellers to register their establishments while buyers provide feedback. At its core, a rating platform is a dynamic ecosystem where sellers, buyers, and the platform’s algorithms all interact—a playground that any mechanism designer would love to experiment with....

This is from Classical FM: We break down Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo’s Oscars duet from a classical music perspective https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/music-theory/ariana-grande-cynthia-erivo-oscars-duet-analysis/ > From a classical perspective, taking a breath in the middle of the word ‘over’ in her first line seems like an unusual technical choice. But, after accepting that this is a pop-R&B take on Arlen’s classic song of hope, filled with Grande’s personal stylings, it makes more musical sense....