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Jasper Burns

I’m energized by learning, exploring, and creating.

With this one life, I want to fly planes, build companies, cook great meals, read great books, and be broadly capable.

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I am a JD/MBA and Knight‑Hennessy Scholar at Stanford University.

Before that, I spent eight years in the Navy flying the EA‑18G Growler fighter jet (a variant of the F/A‑18 Super Hornet), as a social aide at the White House, and as a fellow at both McKinsey & Co. and the Institute for Law & AI.

I am a cross-functional technical operator. On deployment, I commanded strike packages of mixed fighter jets and ran a 43‑sailor division that took the squadron’s radar, electrical, and avionics systems from non-operational to mission-capable. As an undergraduate, I studied computer science; as a graduate student, I am leading multiplayer AI privacy research with a Stanford Engineering lab.

Library

Books I’ve read, synced from Goodreads.

The Righteous MindHaidt
The MartianWeir
Common SensePaine
On Writing WellZinsser
Thoughts of a Philosophical Fighter PilotStockdale
1984Orwell
How to Win Friends & Influence PeopleCarnegie
Just MercyStevenson
Islam and the Future of ToleranceHarris
InfidelAli
America's War for the Greater Middle EastBacevich
Waking UpHarris
The End of FaithHarris
The Moral LandscapeHarris
Genius FoodsLugavere
The Road to CharacterBrooks
Practical EthicsSinger
Man's Search for MeaningFrankl
Homo DeusHarari
SuperintelligenceBostrom
Stem Cell TherapyRiordan
The Coddling of the American MindHaidt
The FountainheadRand
Atlas ShruggedRand
The Model ThinkerPage
The New RightMalice
Call Sign ChaosMattis
EnduranceLansing
The GeneMukherjee
UnveiledMohammed
EvictedDesmond
Thinking, Fast and SlowKahneman
"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!"Feynman
Being MortalGawande
EducatedWestover
The Black SwanTaleb
Starting StrengthRippetoe
Einstein's Relativity and the Quantum RevolutionWolfson
Skin in the GameTaleb
A Short History of Nearly EverythingBryson
Uncle Tom’s CabinStowe
The Anarchist HandbookMalice
The End of the World Is Just the BeginningZeihan
ShantaramRoberts
The Emperor of ScentBurr
The White PillMalice
PandemiaBerenson
The Spy and the TraitorMacintyre
AntifragileTaleb

Projects

Research, events, tools, and more.

Two VAQ-136 EA-18G Growlers flying low through a basalt canyon

Philosophy

Philosophy

This series of essays explores how I envision living a good life.

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Other Essays

White House social aides in mess dress on the South Lawn

Community

Cohorts, clubs, groups, and organizations I feel connected to.

A Le Cordon Bleu Paris class and its chefs in whites, in front of the school's crest