Sun & Steel
Hey! My name’s Sofus. I’m an 18-year-old who loves building things and coding AI apps, and I am an upcoming ‘24 Activator at TKS. 🚀
Dictum of the month:
”Embrace the sun & reach higher, but also ground yourself through the steel.”
Team “Solon AI”
This past year, I have worked on a couple of AI projects in education, but none were challenging to implement. Although I have been working on Solon AI for a while, I realized that I needed a pair of helping hands.
Solon AI is a vision turned project of making school more meaningful by starting teaching from where the student are, regarding their interest, personality & learning preferences.
Two guys were excited, talented & crazy enough to want to join the project to make this vision a reality.
Now, accepted into Buildspace, we are working 6 weeks alongside people from all over the world, to at last launch it & show it to the world.
We have already gotten 23 beta users, continuing the search & improving Solon AI along this path.
Are we going to make it to SF? Can’t wait to see what amazing things this project & Buildspace can bring.
Getting accepted to dream college
This spring I came across a college that I was so excited about that I began to apply that moment. I got through the next round & the next round.
When I came into last interview, I was very nervous. There were 5 teachers for the interview, each respectively in background of Stanford, Oxford & top companies.
“Today is not an interview, it is a call to welcome you to ____. Congratulations, you got in. In the nordic there were 20 000 applicants, only as 3 students got in!“
There is a lot of days in life where I can’t recognize the person in the mirror. I don’t think that feeling will change anytime soon. Part of me hopes that feeling will stay.
There’s has been a lot of momentum lately, I will try to cheerish that. In the near future, who knows, I may be learning from some of the smartest people in the world.
Europe grind trip
I attend TKS. One of my best buddies from TKS is Mats. We decided to spend 2 weeks with together in Norway & in Denmark.
Here was our routine:
Run over 10k,
Working on Solon AI & videos, &
Explore the city.
Sleep & repeat…
We got instilled a lot of discipline & a lot of learnings on the way. I got to thank my friend for a lot. This is not the last time I am going to spend time working with a friend, & if I had the choice I would do this again! 10/10
Sun and Steel
This week I read the book Sun & Steel, by Yukio Mishima.
Yukio Mishima is probably one of the most thought provoking people I ever learned about. From being Japans best selling author, to train his body & mind endlessly and finally in his life commiting sepuku, I wanted to learn about his philosophy.
Main takeaways:
Train Spirit & Mind: Enlightenment of the spirit can only take you so far. After all, the lust for ascension of the spirit seems so close to insanity. So reach higher for your ideals with the spirit, and ground yourself with training the body. Peace of mind is only fully attainable with peace of body.
Words for the sake of beauty: We often get caught up in the words we speak or hear. Mishima reminds us that words are but words; they have no inherent importance. Instead, Mishima encourages us to utter only the words that bring us closer to our ideal, truth, and beauty.
Memento Mori: Mishima was no stranger to ancient Greek ideas. He put inexpressive importance on Momento Mori to remember death. At the end of the book, he shares his realization that the only commonality of training the body & reaching ever higher with the mind is the reminder of death.
To intentionally “die & get reborn” as a more strong & honorable human.
Lessons this month
Approach matters more than effort
Live more intentionally by remembering death, reaching with your spirit higher towards the sun while staying grounded by training the body with steel.
Take more time with what you do.
Next Steps:
Continuing the search,
Personal projects for fun, &
Seek out the beauty in mind & flesh through sun & steel.
Thanks a lot for following along what I have been up to this summer & all of the support for the writing of these capsules. I wish you all luck with whatever you are pursuing.
All the best,
Sofus <3