Pam Beardsell
Stephen Wolfram, Gilmore Girls, the NYC startup scene, "food near me"
Today’s guest is Pam Beardsell, senior software engineer extraordinaire at Yuzu Health and the first Manhattanite to appear on TMI.
Stat sheet
💼 Occupation: Software Engineer
🏠 Neighborhood: Gramercy
🌎 Origin: St. Louis, Missouri
💪 Notable work: Yuzu Health’s claims processing system
So how’d you end up here, doing this interview?
I’m Kevin’s (your?) girlfriend.
Let’s check in with where your head is at right now. What tabs do you currently have open on your phone?
(Editor’s note: she decided to include all of them. Consequently, the following is best read as a work of short-form conceptual memoir. It’s worth reading in full.)
Total number: 190
In reverse chronological order:
Psilocybin study on NIH website
Google - “Who owns the flatiron building?”
Google - “Richard Nixon birthplace”
Google - “Food near me”
Wine & Cheese & Boogie - Disco Internationale (partiful)
Google - “Do kittens eat less than adult cats?”
Keeping Your Cat Out of Your Houseplants (article)
Google - “AMSC stock”
Google - “Sam Altman net worth”
Google - “Burger near me”
liveohana.ai - my sublet listing post
Google - “Cat ideal room temperature”
Google - “Are fig plants poisonous to cats”
yuzu.health dashboard
Google - “Alessia Cara sounds like Justin Bieber”
Google - “10 dollar bill president”
Google - “Dinner the hedges”
Google - “Verizon router back light flickering”
Google - “Duane Reade”
Google - “Food near me”
Google - “Target near me”
Google - “In the moment we’re lost and found song”
Rebuild hemlock hall (gofundme)
FAQ - sagamore.org
Google - “Can geese hurt you”
Claimsbridge.net - login
Guideline Login
GoodRx homepage
GoodRx homepage
Google - “nyc average august temperature”
Google - “housing works hours”
sephora.com
sephora .com
Google - “Sephora”
Beyondmenu.com - sushi order receipt
Google - “What temperature does milk freeze”
Grand Central Terminal Whispering Gallery (article)
Google - “taylor swift nyc apartment cornelia street”
AptDeco.com
Google (images) - “dyson purifier mask”
Shopharbour.com
Google - “dominos”
AptDeco.com
AptDeco.com
Github signin
“Foraging with the ‘Wildman’ (at Prospect Park)” (article)
Google - “food near me”
American Heritage Dictionary - ‘lackadaisical’
my Calendly
Google - Post fourier transform
How Long Does It Take To See Results From IPL Hair Removal (article)
Titanic submersible live updates: ‘catastrophic implosion’… (article)
Google - “burmese python”
Google - “i put my airpods case in the washer”
Home Depot - hanging planter
Google - “english ivy plants vs german ivy care”
25 Best Plants to Put in Your Shower (article)
12 Plants You Can Grow Successfully in the Shower (article)
Google - “food near me”
ChatGPT
Google - “beacon bread company menu”
Google - “the manhattan saddlery”
coned.com
Google - “what percent of gen z identifies as queer”
Google - “does ipl hair removal work”
10 Best At-Home Laser Hair Removal Devices (article)
RIZZTOPIA HYPERREALITY SOIRÉE (partiful)
Google - “nootropics”
IHop Menu
Google - “how to get scratches out of wood floor”
Chloe’s Final Leo Year Birthday Extravaganza (partiful)
Google - “food near me”
A Fascinating Prisoner’s Puzzle (article)
We’re officially in the most common birth month… (article)
Google - “blue jean comfort colors”
Google - “corner store open near me”
Google - “can you message on youtube”
My youtube history
Google - “time in rome”
Ponarsher.com
Gusto
DoorDash
Google - “does ipl hair removal work”
Wayfair.com
Wayfair.com
Google - “.1eth to usd”
Wayfair.com
Wayfair.com
Wayfair.com
Wayfair.com
Wayfair.com
Google - “dinette sets 4 person”
HomeDepot
Google - “fios where is password on router”
Google - “jfk middle name”
Venmo.com
Google - “snubin fish book”
6 Steps to Safely Moving a Fish Tank (article)
Pair Team Secures $7.3 Million… (article)
Uhaul rental
Google - “bed bath and beyond hours”
Google - “rogue wave max height.”
Google - “gaia collective”
Verizon order confirmation
Google - ‘*** e 24th street’ (censored)
Google - ‘xps foam’
How to Soundproof a Window Air Conditioner (article)
Wikipedia - ‘Hygge’
Google - ‘ontomontopia’
Google - ‘eric andere’
Google (images) - ‘new york life building’
Coinbase
Google - ‘unitedhealth market cap’
Google - ‘partners coffee’
Google - ‘karaoke’
Wayfair.com
Google - ‘margaritas near me’
Joybird.com
Joybird.com
Experian
Google - ‘*** e 46th street’ (censored)
Schwab
Gusto earnings statement
Gusto
Schwab earnings statement
PROM! (partiful)
Yuzu.party
Rubiconins.com
Graphcommons
AptDeco
NYT login
Google - ‘mcb cakes’
A Short Note On Large Language Models (article)
Google - ‘is 76 degree water cool to the touch’
Google - ‘sexy shrimp’ (proof)
5 Best Tank Mates for Betta Fish (article)
Google - ‘119 aquarium’
Theasciicode.com
Petefreitag.com
Google docs login
Docs.oracle.com
How to Cook Fluffy Quinoa (article)
Easy Bean Salad Recipe (article)
Message from the Mayor (nyc.gov - article)
Google - ‘what muscle flexes pinky toe’
Google - ‘muscles of the foot’
Abductor Hallucis Strain - Its Causes and Treatments (article)
New MTA App (article)
Google - ‘food near me’
Google - ‘indian food near me’
Mulchfest - nycgovparks.org
6 Surprising Things You May Not Know About Bolivia (article)
The Guide to American Airlines Flight Cancellations (article)
Gusto
Mobile boarding pass (aa.com)
Check in confirmation (aa.com)
Scurvy - still a threat in the well-fed first world? (article)
Google - ‘macys near me’
Google - ‘nordstrom rack’
Google - 'satin pajama set’
Neimanmarcus.com
Flightview.com
Neimanmarcus.com
Google - ‘trifle’
Target.com
Google - ‘most traveled subway stop in the world’
Wikipedia - ‘Minneapolis’
Bluedognyc.com
Camille **** Calendly (censored)
Thedavidprize.org
Stanford “elimination of harmful speech” IT site page
Lisa Kudrow IMDB
Google - ‘bombay grill house’
Google - ‘food near me’
Google - ‘food near me open now’
How to make a collaborative spotify playlist… (article)
Google - “whose vs who’s”
Healthcaremarketplace.com
Info.nystateofhealth.ny.gov
Google - ‘does chipotle take apple pay’
Google - ‘christmas party dress’
Vodka Cranberry Cocktail - Cape Cod Drink (article)
Google - ‘news bar cafe’
Google - ‘newsbar cafe’
Google - ‘wesleyan undergrad math ranking’
Do Women Need More Sleep Than Men? (article)
Computational Entropy and Cryptographic Constructions (article)
Yelp - Swiss Precision Watchmaking and Repair page
Etsy - ‘table leg extenders’ search
Yelp - ‘bed sheets’ search
How about the Platonic form of Pam—what people, places, or activities make you feel most yourself?
Really anyone, anywhere, or anything that makes me think. Kevin, work/coding, chess.
What do you do in your spare time?
Lie down.
What makes you forget about checking your phone?
Coding – the only thing that burns 8 hours faster is sleep.
Wind it back. What’s your favorite memory from the past year?
That’s an incredibly difficult question for the unexpected reason of me having the worst memory recall imaginable, so I’m likely completely spacing on many true contenders. That said, I think it’s the night that Kevin came back to New York after tending to a lingering D.C. lease for a few weeks. I was living in Hell’s Kitchen and he was on a bus into Port Authority (1 train stop away, ~6 minute transit door to door), and I had a whole plan to get flowers and do a sort of gender-swapped movie reunion moment. I stepped out of my front door and the streets were absolutely packed. Like, almost NYE packed. It would’ve probably taken me 3 minutes to wade through the crowd to the plant shop I knew was around the corner, and I had a bad feeling that the trains weren’t running at all. I’d budgeted about 10 minutes for the flowers and train combined, and realized my plan was falling apart. Trying to save what I could of it, I decided to just run to Port Authority to see if I could still make it before Kevin’s bus got in. I couldn’t, which would’ve normally disappointed me - but it didn’t matter, we had a wide open road, endless possibilities, and the tingle of a new relationship. The movie montage quality of that fiasco makes me smile.
Now fast forward. What are you most looking forward to in the next month?
Foliage!
Time to get weird. What’s the weirdest thing you believe?
Mild to moderate allergies can be willed away. (editor’s note: this is strikingly similar to Emily Edelman’s answer)
Back to normie questions. What’s your dream job?
More or less my current job - software engineer at a tiny startup whose mission I’m deeply aligned with.
What work of yours are you most proud of?
I don’t think there’s any singular work that stands out to me, but I’m extremely proud of the rate at which I’ve grown as an engineer – both in terms of objective technical ability as well as ability to reason about software at large, to orient myself in unfamiliar territory and see how the abstract pieces fit (or don’t).
What are two goals, one personal and one professional, that you have for the next year? For your lifetime?
The Next Year:
Personal: I’d like to be better at keeping up with friends, I’m a notoriously bad texter and I think that’s sort of just a bad friend vibe.
Professional: This isn’t something that I’ll accomplish independently, but I want to be able to see a path through the thick forest that is the American health insurance industry – to be able to articulate a path to positive change, rather than to just know that one exists.
Lifetime:
Personal: To find/form/expand my family.
Professional: To leave a real dent in a big problem.
Last few questions, focused on mapping your socio-creative world. Who are your creative inspirations?
I talk about this guy a lot (and not exactly most people’s idea of a creative), but Stephen Wolfram. He’s certifiably nuts and has circled around huge tech movements at very early stages his whole career, seeing huge potential in random fringe tech projects.
How about among people you know or are friends with?
I also talk about this guy a lot, but Kevin Esherick. I generally don’t outlet my creativity in the same mediums as he does, but if we’re counting general creativity in how one views and thinks about the world then he’s definitely influenced and inspired me.
What creative scenes or movements are you most excited about right now?
The NYC startup scene. I’ve found in it what I originally sought (and did not find) in academia – a group of people who are truly engaged with what they’re doing, who take intellectual and conceptual risk, and who are, on average, extremely freaking smart.
If you could have a sleepover with anyone in the world, who would it be?
Kevin (again, lol).
Send the last pic in your camera roll, no context.
Wow! Okay, who should we have on next?
Pam’s List
Five recs for right now
📺 Gilmore Girls - just a well done, warm, simple show
💭 Logical Positivism (despite not knowing all that much about it)
🎲 Avalon - it reveals crazy lying abilities in the people you’d least expect
📍 Lucy’s - a grimy hole in the wall in East Village where pool is taken far too seriously
🏛️ Grand Central Terminal - the most Easter Egg filled building I know
Want more? Too bad, she’s not on social media! To collect Pam's trading card, find her IRL and ask to scan.