## Short Questions (50w) *1. What is the most significant challenge that society faces today?* Option 1:, Most believe the biggest challenge is ignorance—that more knowledge solves our problems. But the deeper issue is coordination failure in complex systems. We possess the knowledge and tools to address global challenges, yet we remain unable to translate understanding into collective action due to the complexity of interconnnected global systems. Option 2: Education shapes how we approach problems—yet we're trained to optimize within given systems, not redesign them. As AI transforms work, society needs people who can see interconnections, question assumptions, and create new possibilities. Our inability to cultivate this thinking at scale limits our collective capacity to navigate complexity and build better futures. --- *2. How did you spend your last two summers?* I spent my summers reconnecting with my teachers and mentors in China who once made space for my curiosity even in restrive systems, and meeting and meeting innovative educators at summits across Europe. These interactions helped see better what does learners really need how can I help. --- *3. What historical moment or event do you wish you could have witnessed?* *Option 1* The first ice arriving in the Caribbean—watching tropical crowds touch frozen water for the first time. Their faces shifting from skepticism to wonder. That's what drives me: showing people something so elegant, so impossible-seeming, that it rewrites what they believe is real. *Option 2* I wish to witness the days before any famous success -- say, Elon Musk looking at the debris of a failed launch. We worhsip the moments of sucess. The secret: genius is the willingness to sit with unbearable uncertainty longer than anyone else can tolerate. --- *4. Briefly elaborate on one of your extracurricular activities, a job you hold, or responsibilities you have for your family.* As UWC TV's initiator, I envisioned expanding from our campus to across the entire UWC network, connecting isolated campuses through a shared media platform. Building information infrastructure to bridge the geographical gaps felt essential: showing people they're part of a movement larger than their individual campuses and IB courses. --- *5. List five things that are important to you.* - Building great new things with fellow conspirators - Meaning & purpose: The Power Law-- only focus on what matter - Preserving humanity -- rejecting to do anything AI can do, becoming "unLLMable" - Learning in public, working with the garage door open - Opensource sharing, making everything a collaboration --- ## Short Essays (250w) *The Stanford community is deeply curious and driven to learn in and out of the classroom. Reflect on an idea or experience that makes you genuinely excited about learning.* I don't think I'm passionate about "learning" in the traditional sense -- reading textbooks and consuming information feels passive and mechinical. What really excites me is unlearning -- questions assumptions and crafting new possiblities. I first felt the thrill studying I first felt this thrill studying the paradigm shift from a mechanistic Newtonian worldview—where the universe was a predictable machine—to a systemic, interconnected one defined by emergence and complexity. Suddenly, everything I’d been taught in physics and economics looked different. In economics, for example, we began with the assumption that the world is built on scarcity. But what happens when AI create a future defined by abundance -- of intelligence and materials? This pulled me into deep explorations on how humans might adapt their mindsets and systems to a post-scarcity world. In other words I'm excited by _unlearning_ -- by watching certainty crumble and new possibilities arise. That's where I can build great things to prepare for that future. --- *Virtually all of Stanford's undergraduates live on campus. Write a note to your future roommate that reveals something about you or that will help your roommate – and us – get to know you better.* Hey there, I'm Jimmy—though by the time we meet, I won't be. I decide to change my name at each major life transition. My first chapter closes on my eighteenth birthday, a few months before I arrive at Stanford. To most poeple it might sounds strange. But to me, it's a sacred practice. Names carry weight. Names mark my unique existence, because what doesn't have a name doesn't exist. But I've came to believe that identity is never fixed, and I refuse to let a name or parts of my experience define my existence. Some say I am just running from who I was by having the illusion of "starting anew". Partially true, but I don't just leave "Jimmy" behind to be forgotten. I write obituaries for my former selves—honest reckonings with whether I became who I intended to be, what have I decide to leave behind. Each renaming is a funeral and a rebirth at the same time. I don't know yet what I'll be called when we meet. I'm still listening for it—the name that fits who I'm becoming as I step into Stanford, into this next chapter. But I'm looking forward to introducing myself. Until then, Jimmy Zhang --- *Please describe what aspects of your life experiences, interests and character would help you make a distinctive contribution as an undergraduate to Stanford University.* Last year, I volunteered to Alpha-test a voice dictation app called "Wispr Flow", as a tech-ethusiast dreaming of keyboard alternatives. I actively resported bugs and suggested fixes, working closely with them through email and Zoom meeting. I didn't know they were Stanford students who just raised $30M in Series A until several months later -- they are just so nice and chill, and gave me the vibe of people I wanted to build great products with. The following summer in Vietnam, I participated in the UWC Short Course where a Stanford graduate facilitated an activity inspired by Stanford's Life Design Course. I have long read about it in book -- but experiencing it firsthand still deeply transformed my thinking. A long conversation with the facilitator prompted me to rethink how my love for Personal Knowledge Management can benefit the world. It was also afterwards when I fully embraced the philosophy of learning in public, starting writing newsletters and opensourcing my notes. I realized that the Life Design Course really captures the essence of education -- helping students discover what they love and where they find meaning. That's exactly what I hope to enable for every student. Thus my small dream to contribute to or even redesign the Stanford Life Design Course to make it more accessible to more learners across the world.