For one of my classes this semester, a foundational course for PhD students in my program, we were to create a presentation about a research proposal we worked on. I recorded my presentation since I will miss the last class due to travel, and I’m glad it worked out that way. I remembered how much I enjoy putting together presentations and I now have a recording to share and to reference later as my ideas evolve.
I think this is the start to another conference talk, descended from CSS Algorithms. When I was working on the CSS Algorithms talk years ago, I knew there was much more to it. I thought, “what if I kept working on this through a PhD”. Well, now a few years later, that’s exactly what I’m doing! I had a lot of reservations about leaving my software career and starting over in academia, but my gut felt like that was the right path. I did a ton of exploration and talking to people, but found nothing that dissuaded me, so I went for it. Now, after my first semester, I can say with full confidence that my gut was totally right (typical hindsight about a gut feeling, right).