I am now opening myself up to the possibility of pursuing any of the following occupations:
- Fundamental ML research
- Healthcare ML engineering / research
- Algorithms Academic
- AI safety
How am I going to go about doing this?
- Study ML myself
- Get a ML UROP
- Take some ML classes
- internship?
Why am I making this decision?
I want to work on problems that people care about. This exists in TCS, but not in the same way. In TCS it’s about what people think is cute. I think that’s not so sustainable for me. In these other fields it’s more about what can save / improve lives, or anyways there’s maybe a more objective framework for analyzing what is useful and what is not. I think this objective importance of questions also fosters more hard work and collaboration.
This seems more likely to lead to having a positive impact on the world, and to career satisfaction.
EDIT: oh, hmm, actually I am feeling a lot better about doing algorithms research after
- recovering from being sick
- talking to a friend about this.
- Realizing that there are actually algorithms researchers that make a huge impact on the world. The problem is just finding the right questions to ask. oh, yeah that’s right.oh, yeah that’s right.
So anyways, I think this is probably not going to result in me abandoning theory. Instead I hope the positive results of my period of reflection will include:
- Regarding the “problem finding” part of doing research as important, and practicing the problem finding skill more.
- Remembering your work is not your worth
- Being more open to trying different problems