Thanks for your interest!
More than 20 years ago, I built a radio reciever using a superconducting device for my thesis. It was the most sensitive radio in the world for a while, in the 300 GHz to 500 GHz range. My one and only wikipedia article is about that: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superconductor-insulator-superconductor_tunnel_junction
I designed a data compression scheme for information about GPS satellite orbits. As dull as that sounds, the exciting part is that millions of downloads of the data are done a day. That jazzed me good.
Books:
The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein Blindsight by Peter Watts A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge
The Rational Optimist by Matt Ridley The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life by Alice Schroeder Stumbling On Happiness by Daniel Gilbert Fortune's Formula: The Untold Story of the Scientific Betting System That Beat the Casinos and Wall Street by William Poundstone Genome by Matt Ridley Freakonomics (and super, the sequel)
That list is weighted towards more recent, and I left out my "stock porn" books like "The Big Short" and "Too Big To Fail." But the bio of Buffett is incredible in my opinion.
Oh wow, that's awesome! When my dad was in the USSR, one person would have a really good radio, and everyone would gather in their basement to try to listen to Voice of America, which the Soviets would try to block. I bet they wouldn't have any problems if they'd had your radio! lol
I tried reading Anathem by Stephenson. That didn't last.
One of the things I loved about studying liberal arts is that you actually got to know your professors. They would discuss their personal experiences in a topic ("Here's what I did during the feminist movement.."), you might get slide shows from their vacation in the country of study, or even invited to their house for a group dinner.
Going into engineering was rather jarring for me in that regard. The vast majority of professors would come to class, lecture on the topic, and that would be it. They might share what their specific field of study was, but they rarely shared any personal details. It actually made it harder for me to learn, because it was like "Who is this person who is talking to me?"
(I think a large part of this for me personally was because I am motivated by a desire to please, and so if I liked my professors, then I wouldn't want to inconvenience them by handing things in late, or bore them by giving them another sub-par paper to read. But that's another discussion...)
I've noticed that Less Wrong is similar in some ways. We may know about each other's views on particular topics, and general fields of study, but we know very little about each other as people, unless a personal topic happens to be related to a particular rationalist study. Even the intro thread set up here focuses mainly on non-personal information.
For example, a Generic Intro post right now would be something like: "I'm X years old. From place Y. The fields I study/want to study are Z. Here's what college/HS was/is like for me. I have akrasia." Pretty boring, right? INSTEAD, the things I would be interested in knowing about my fellow LWers include: "On my time off I enjoy underwater basketweaving and climbing Mt Kilamanjaro. I have 6 young daughters and a dog named Grrr. I love pesto. etc"
From a rational perspective, an argument could be made that it's easier to have constructive arguments that remain civil when you humanize the people you are speaking with.
I was wondering how other LWers feel on the subject. Do you like that our discussions are un-hampered by personal data? Do you like the idea of providing personal intros? Do you not want to provide personalish information for safety reasons, or because you don't think it's anyone business?
If you think you might need help writing a personal intro, I wrote [a general guide](http://lesswrong.com/lw/8nq/more_personal_introductions/5d4e) on the topic in the comments below.
Note: I predict there will be two types of response to this post. People discussing how they feel about this (Meta-Comments), and people giving personal introductions (Intros). To make navigating the responses easier, I am trying an experiment where I set up a meta-comment thread and a personal introduction thread.
PLEASE PLACE COMMENTS ABOUT THIS IDEA IN META-COMMENT THREAD, AND COMMENTS INTRODUCING YOURSELF IN INTRO THREAD.
Edited to make it more clear to focus on personality, hobbies, likes/dislikes, and NOT on what you study, or school.
ETA- Added link to "How to Write Personal Intro" comment