Back to Daily Daily Prep: Monday, April 20, 2026

Daily Prep: Monday, April 20, 2026

Light day — only Tinker Time Run Through at 10:15. Good focus block for clearing the carried backlog. DeepLearning.AI Dev Day is next Tue-Wed.

Carried Forward from Friday (Apr 17)

Incomplete Action Items

From sofIA meeting (Fri Apr 17):

  • Help design auth flow (school codes? teacher-generated links?)
  • Help design database schema for conversation persistence
  • Advise on conversation memory architecture for node tracking
  • Potentially build or advise on a Prompt Lab for the sofIA team

Still open from last week:

  • Reply-all to Alison’s VFT seed grantee email — VFT cam + photosphere tool + Google Doc (Kristen’s Apr 16 ask)
  • Retag meeting notes — Josh’s 3 Google Doc action items (Apr 8)
  • Forward Egencia receipts to Moraima — confirm whether this got sent Fri. Draft was in Drafts on Apr 16; Moraima’s 2nd follow-up was Apr 14.
  • Reply to Anthony Pollina — review his AI lesson plan
  • Weigh in on Efface/Privacy Office thread
  • Draft CRM survey questions — Josh still waiting
  • Follow up with Vanessa Monterosa re: Flash Lab partnership
  • Send Rachel AI + learning-by-creating tool recommendations
  • Cat Nostrand follow-up (no reply since Mar 16)
  • Create Flash Lab inventory document (basic vs deluxe)
  • Download CRISPRkit TestFlight (code: NGEHQB) — Thu meeting prep
  • Check with GSE IT re: loaner Android / Chromebooks — Thu meeting prep
  • Research Android-on-Chromebook deployment — Thu meeting prep

Open Questions/Blockers

  • Marily/Caitlin: IRB feedback on Health Coach Bot
  • Brooke (OTL): Geoff Cox + YouCubed contract precedent
  • ISTE: Alissa scheduling meeting with Jessica Rami + Isabelle — watch for invite

Today’s Calendar

10:15 AM — Tinker Time Run Through (45 min)

With: Christine Bywater Location: Zoom Context: Rehearsal/prep session for Wednesday’s M.E.T.A. Professional Learning #7: Tinker Time (Wed Apr 22, 9–11am, META Institute Cohort 2). Christine is running the main session — today is a dry run. Likely want to confirm roles, materials, and flow. Prep needed: Pull up any existing Tinker Time materials or Flash Lab inventory. Quick check on what Christine needs from you for Wednesday.

Slack Catch-Up

New — Needs Response

Nothing new since Friday.

Recent (already handled or low-action)

  • Kristen Pilner Blair (Apr 16) — VFT reply-all ask. Still pending — carry forward to today.
  • Josh Weiss (Apr 17) — Casual banter during Friday workshops (“accurate and relevant”, “succinct not succulent”). No action.
  • Josh Weiss (Apr 16) — “Great job” / “nice plug for us” after Shaping the Narrative workshop. No action.
  • Joe Sherman (Apr 16) — Thanked for workshop help. No action.

Email Action Items

Needs Response

None urgent today.

Needs Action

  • Joe Sherman — “Quoted Impact Reminder” (Apr 17): Joe’s bi-weekly nudge. Reflect on past 2 weeks for quotes to add to Airtable’s Quoted Impact field. Good candidates: sofIA meeting, Dan/Josh Q2 meeting, Shaping the Narrative workshop. Do this before Tue AS:DE meeting so it’s in the Airtable view.
  • GPS Self-Narrative Workshop (Thu Apr 23, 12pm Zoom) — Christina Fajardo. Relevant — tied to GPS goal setting. Scheduling note: Starts right as Studio Services & CRISPRkit wraps (11am–12pm). Possible to catch. RSVP if attending.

FYI / Watch

  • vftsupport shared email expires May 20, 2026 unless Wilson Wang’s sponsorship is renewed. Tracking only — not Reuben’s responsibility, but worth flagging to Wilson if it matters for VFT work.
  • Ishita Kumar (gsecommunity): “AI in Education: Beyond Chatbots” — Thu Apr 23 event. Potentially worth attending if agenda aligns.
  • Anya Ma Dissertation Defense — Tue Apr 28, 3pm. Conflicts with DeepLearning.AI Dev Day (in SF). Skip.
  • SWAYWO 2026 session chair invitation — Gabriela Lopez. Defer decision.
  • Airtable: Josh added Reuben as Project Lead on more records (Apr 15).
  • Newsletters skipped: TLDR AI, Hechinger Report, SSIR, Snowflake, Microsoft, Zapier, Emerald, Stanford Venture Studio, Stanford Report, BeWell, Ulrich Boser, pyannote, Airtable Team, Flint, Family Giving Tree, Stanford HAI, ASU+GSV, FirstIgnite, DeepLearning.AI Data Points.

Reminders

Personal (Claude list)

  • Ask Chris at Ascendant Aviation re: tax questions
  • Buy echinacea herb for cold
  • Read: OpenAI Prompt Caching 201 cookbook (overdue since Feb 26)
  • Read: arxiv.org/abs/2512.05470 (personal laptop)
  • Go through Google DeepMind skills collection
  • Plan something special for Christyl — 24th anniversary (due Jun 1)
  • Book Lake Gregory trip — June 8 (due May 25)

Claude-ToDo (mobile capture)

5 items, unchanged from Friday. Mostly personal/meta — Google Workspace CLI, personal EA bot setup, SQLite reflections, Amazon Business check, NASA tweet. No Fizzy cards needed.

From Inbox Processing

Processed 1 entry:

  • Apr 16 10:45 reflection notes from Josh 1:1 — Career trajectory framing questions (“what does me in a year look like?”, “helping the org grow into the next role”, “leverage what I’ve got”). Routed to meetings/josh-1on1s.md under a new Apr 16 entry. Carry these questions into the May career-planning 1:1.

Inbox cleared.

Cadence Checks

  • TIMECARD: Next deadline is Apr 30 (end of month). 10 days out — no action needed today.
  • END OF MONTH: April 30 is 10 days away. Start thinking about /monthly-airtable entries this week or next.
  • DeepLearning.AI Dev Day (Apr 28-29): 8 days out. Review agenda this week — ideally today or tomorrow. Flights + hotel booked.
  • Studio Services & CRISPRkit (Thu): Outstanding pre-work — TestFlight download, GSE IT Androids, Chromebook Android research. Block time this week before Thursday.
  • Quoted Impact reminder: Joe’s ask. Add entries to Airtable before Tuesday’s AS:DE meeting.
  • Fizzy: Auth error still — FIZZY_TOKEN_STANFORD env var not loaded. Check the board manually.

This Week Look-Ahead

Day Date Events
Mon Apr 20 Tinker Time Run Through (10:15am)
Tue Apr 21 Ardent Mentoring w/ Leopold (8:30am), AS:DE (11am), CAP (6:30pm)
Wed Apr 22 M.E.T.A. Tinker Time (9am, 2 hrs), CAP Check-in (6pm)
Thu Apr 23 Chiropractor (8am), Josh 1:1 (10am), Studio Services & CRISPRkit (11am), Dancing through Time (1pm)
Fri Apr 24 Weekly Review (2pm)

Prep priorities this week:

  • Wed META Tinker Time — today’s run-through covers this
  • Thu Studio Services & CRISPRkit — 3 open CRISPRkit items before this meeting
  • Thu Dancing through Time — light prep: review Cyan DeVeaux seed grant status

Today’s Priorities

Light meetings, good focus day. Knock out overdue items and do DL.AI Dev Day prep.

  1. Tinker Time Run Through (10:15am) — prep Christine for Wed’s META session
  2. Kristen’s VFT reply-all — quick email, clear this 4-day-old ask
  3. CRISPRkit prep work — download TestFlight, email GSE IT about loaner Androids, Chromebook Android research. Thu meeting is real.
  4. Joe’s Quoted Impact — add 2-3 entries to Airtable before Tue AS:DE
  5. DeepLearning.AI Dev Day agenda review — 8 days out
  6. Moraima receipts — confirm status. If draft still in Drafts, send it.

Session Notes

(Added throughout the day as significant work sessions occur)

Generated: 2026-04-20 ~10:00 AM PDT (Monday)

Source: daily/2026-04-20.md