It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. But as long as some of us are having fun caving, we can roll with it.

Ken led Peter H, Piotr S and me on a ‘suits and snoots’ photography trip into Paxton Cave near Covington, Virginia. We had a blast in the big chamber — setting up shots, talking endlessly about science, math, and finance. We tended to get laser-focused in this mood.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. At the start of the trip, the caretaker mentioned that a Mr. Hsin from Taiwan was also on a photo trip in the cave. Naturally, Ken wanted me to make a cultural connection — a likely once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. He asked me to lead the crawl in and greet the unsuspecting Mr. Hsin. The man was visibly astonished to hear someone speak his native tongue underground. So taken aback was he that he had to ask where I was from. He did this not once, but twice.

‘Suits and snoots’ indeed. Learned, meta, and tongue-in-cheek. That was the general tone of the trip.

Later, I floated the idea that certain people’s brain wavelengths can sync so naturally it feels like serendipity. The others were skeptical. They wanted verifiable research to back the claim. My p-value, it seemed, did not meet acceptable thresholds. If the p is low, the null must go. Or something like that.