This is the first coop where I have options and I don’t know what to do. I’ve been lucky enough that each coop has been in something that I knew I wanted to do or test, and as a result there wasn’t much of a question. I think it would be good for me to word vomit here.
In the future, I see myself working on moonshots
It’s worth it to describe my role in these projects. Realistically, I want to feel responsible for their success, although I know it’s not a quality of a good engineer.
I think it’s okay for me to want this though. It’s a downstream effect of having ambition. It is well paired with humility in understanding that although you feel responsible, there are many that are.
There are 2 ways that I could be core to a project:
- lead the team to victory, making decisions on the way (technical or not)
- Like Tanay
- be responsible for the core technological advancement that allows for the project to exist
- Like Danny
Being responsible for the core technological advancement means taking an early bet on what technology is useful. The researchers that were fascinated by deep learning 10 years ago are now the ones in this position. This also requires “prep time”.
Read “You don’t need to work on hard problems”
Leading, on the other hand, is much more unpredictable, but easier to do impromptu. It is the role of the generalist.
In the case of being the technical person, it seems I am tech agnostic. It doesn’t matter if I work on crypto or AI, so long as it is the bottleneck for the project.
Some ways to think about it:
- The current bottleneck right now seems to be the intelligence stack, so learn ML really well so I can apply it well.
- It’s hard to predict future bottlenecks so it is easier to treat tech as a hobby, ready to dive in when needed
- It’s low EV to bet on a technology rather than your ability to lead and trailblaze. In this way, it’s better to get breadth early on.
Some more axioms:
- I shouldn’t care about money for an internship
- I shouldn’t care about location for an internship