## Email to Pauline Hey Nick, I can't believe it took me almost a month to reply to you. It is also difficult to understand how I can be both so busy and doing nothing at the same time. Oh, 3/10 is actually not bad for a birthday. I hope that the whole "delayed train " thing has give an aesthetic or meditative dimension to your day. But I guess it was mainly about people complaining and babies crying. It's not the [[first time]] that you have told me that Enrico is someone who makes you work hard. To be honest and because I almost don't have any supervision, it does seem really interesting to me. I need to take the time to organize this. Asa is indeed fun and she is easy to talk to, I really like her. Can you give me more informations about the artifact group ? I would be interested but I'm still trying to overcome my shyness in academia. I would be happy to be mainly a listener but I don't know how this thing works. Also I should perhaps try to force myself a little bit and talk with philosophers. I hope that everything is still good on your side, I mean, above 2/10 at least. And congratulations about the publication !! In the end you managed to understand some parts of the mechanisms of the black box : well done. Pauline Pauline Souman goood I already congratulated you haha, sorry. I'm completely lost in time apparentl Hey, so, my turn to apologise for taking a month to reply. This has been a term of teaching (last week this week), and they always make me feel like there is no time to do anything. As a compulsive showoff I like teaching a lot, but it always seems like it sucks away all the time available to do other things. Sorry to hear about you not getting proper supervision, I always find that very annoying when supervisors don't take things seriously. It's their job! And a good supervisor can make all the difference between the phd being successful or just dropping out of academia. If this is your situation then maybe Enrico would be a good person to work with for a few months, he will push you (which might be [[what you]] need, as you say), and he will give your work the attention it should get. He's also quite good at helping you network, so that also helps. He can be a slavedriver though, don't so I didn't warn you. About the artifacts group. If you think the topic will be interesting or useful to you, I think you should just start going. the person to email is [email protected] Mention my name or copy me in if you would like (I haven't been to one of these meetings for a while but I am hoping to start attending regularly again soon). I don't think there will be a problem with you mainly being a listener, but it might be worth coming to the meetings with one or two (even if vague) questions or ideas. About the academic shyness, yeah it's a pain, and very common, and there's not a quick fix to get rid of it. In short, the more you can force yourself to speak up, the easier it will be. (easier said than done, I know). Also, try not to worry about saying something stupid, philosophers at all levels of academia say stupid things *all the time*. Finally (my train is about to arrive in Genova), going back to you not having much supervision, if you think I could say something helpful about anything you are working on, feel free to send it along. I can't promise you will get a super-fast response, but I'll do my best. Anyway, take care, and let me know if you do decide to get in touch with Enrico about visiting us. Nick