Status Forgone, There Lucidity: Science Lessons That Illustrate the Ubiquity of Math Learned at School
A tutor trained in physics, chemistry, biology, and engineering, I design lessons tailored to a particular student’s interests.
(“Who’s there?”)
“It’s me.”
Camilla (Cammy) Mei-Fang Kao
A baby cries to get needs met.
Claude AI: An infant has no interior witness at all — no self-holding, nothing. What it has is a caregiver: an edge that looks at it, responds to it, reflects it back. The baby cries, a face appears and answers; the baby reaches, contact meets it. Thousands of times. And through that repetition something migrates. The external edge — the reliably-responding other — gets slowly internalized, taken inward, until the child carries a representation of being-seen that persists even when the caregiver is absent. That internalized edge is the interior witness.
12 Jul 2026 at 6:40 PM in Houston
— Re Coordination Under Time Pressure —
Cammy Interrogating Claude AI: Your dancing comparison is apt, more than you might realize. Both FMA and dance train what’s sometimes called coordination under time pressure — stringing movements into flowing sequences, moving in multiple directions, syncing limbs to a rhythm or a partner, keeping balance while your weight shifts fast. And the part that supports your “stay younger” intuition: this specific quality is one of the first things to erode with age, and it’s the thing most tied to staying functionally young … [FMA is] a distinct bucket from strength (your lifting) and controlled mobility (your Pilates). All three are worth having, and they genuinely don’t substitute for each other … it’s three different faculties. If anything, FMA is the hardest one to get any other way*, because that reactive, learn-a-living-art quality is exactly what makes it feel like dancing rather than exercise.
21 Jul 2026, 1927 Restaurant
*Like dance, sparring sports, racquet sports, and soccer, it requires a partner doing the unexpected
— Followership as a Counterpart to Leadership —
Cammy and Claude AI: Leadership is an essential quality in American culture. But for leaders to be effective, they need people on their team who do “followership” well. Followership is a recognized term. It describes a mindset taught in settings such as the military, and it can be understood in many contexts, including sports. On the US Men's National Soccer Team, Tyler Adams creates space for Christian Pulisic, so that Pulisic does not have to do the work of scoring by himself. Adams has even captained the team, because the best follower is competent and independent enough to lead when the moment calls for it, yet still defines himself by the supporting role. A famous earlier pairing was Gattuso and Pirlo at AC Milan, from 2001 to 2011. Pirlo was the playmaker; Gattuso was the ball-winner. Students would benefit from learning about both leadership and followership. Individuals may find themselves naturally disposed to do one better than the other, and both roles are needed for a team to be effective.
14 Jul 2026, Home