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Ben's Research Syllabus

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When I travel to a new city, I like to plan only three things: how to get there, how to get back, and where I’ll be staying. When I arrive, I’ll pick some direction (or maybe, if i’m feeling extra prepared, some famous landmark) and wander towards it in some detour-filled, inefficient manner. Wandering through cities is what makes them feel most real and alive to me. For just a moment, I’m joining its residents in the best parts of their daily lives: discovering a hole-in-the-wall bookstore; running up ancient stairways for morning exercise; biking along a river at sunset on our commute back home. 1 I’m realizing that ‘wandering’ is a pattern of learning and discovery that generalizes further than just traveling to physical places. ‘cities’ can be a stand-in for ‘communities’ or ‘hobbies’ or ‘scientific fields’ or ‘planes ↗’. The real fun isn’t in getting to somewhere or arriving where I want to; it really is in the unplanned, tangled, messy path I forge as I go. By writing this docume

Ben's Research Syllabus Ben's Research Syllabus 1st edition • jan. 2026 preamble ~ notes on wandering When I travel to a new city, I like to plan only three things: how to get there, how to get back, and where I’ll be staying . When I arrive, I’ll pick some direction (or maybe, if i’m feeling extra prepared, some famous landmark) and wander towards it in some detour-filled, inefficient manner. Wandering through cities is what makes them feel most real and alive to me. For just a moment, I’m joining its residents in the best parts of their daily lives: discovering a hole-in-the-wall bookstore;

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