(no subject)
"Do you want to restore from saved draft?" "Uh... I wonder how long ago that was. What did I say?"
internet
I guess I didn't get very far last time. Hi internet.
for the most part I don't feel compelled to make posts unless I'm depressed about something, which I haven't been in a while. life has been pretty stable; the biggest problem recently has been motivation to actually work on my research and decide on some direction to push for that will produce publishable results, so I guess in some sense I am back to write about my troubles again, but mostly I wanna share a small story.
my recent experience collaborating with some folks from Columbia, which resulted in an SOSP publication*, was a cool adventure, but also cemented my cynicism about how far out of the way of actual intellectual innovation you have to go to obtain results that will impress reviewers in the systems community. so much as I like my research project, I don't have any idea where I'll try to publish next, and I'm afraid of committing to any one particular direction (e.g. looking at device drivers, or SMP, or education) because it feels like each one is risking being a big waste of time. recently I think I've been getting over it, shutting out my advisor's [distorted] voice in my head that says everything I do needs to be towards getting another SOSP or OSDI paper (after it occurred to me that Jiri, who just graduated, never had a top conference publication himself until this very same one I was on, in his last year), and just plugging away at code to make various immediate improvements. it feels good for the default activity during the working day to be "hacking" rather than the old "worrying".
* (check it out, I have an erdös number now! when I told my dad, who's a neurologist and whose number is probably large and due to incidental collaboration with statisticians, to brag about it, I asked what his number was, he said "5; I'm on your birth certificate.")
over the summer (during which I was at Mozilla again), at one point I was visiting Facebook to play magic with zizzy and some of his friends. meeting one of them, I shared with him what my research was about, and was surprised how impressed by it he was - he pretty much bubbled with enthusiasm, saying how cool he thought it was that I was trying to tackle an "impossible" problem, trying to find tricks and concessions and so on to make it possible but still useful. it was a moment of perspective, a small culture shock (in the academia vs industry sense), and it lent some encouragement that even if I despair about what it takes to publish somewhere I'm still working on something cool and fun and... fulfilling. I hope I can keep that feeling from fading.
internet
I guess I didn't get very far last time. Hi internet.
for the most part I don't feel compelled to make posts unless I'm depressed about something, which I haven't been in a while. life has been pretty stable; the biggest problem recently has been motivation to actually work on my research and decide on some direction to push for that will produce publishable results, so I guess in some sense I am back to write about my troubles again, but mostly I wanna share a small story.
my recent experience collaborating with some folks from Columbia, which resulted in an SOSP publication*, was a cool adventure, but also cemented my cynicism about how far out of the way of actual intellectual innovation you have to go to obtain results that will impress reviewers in the systems community. so much as I like my research project, I don't have any idea where I'll try to publish next, and I'm afraid of committing to any one particular direction (e.g. looking at device drivers, or SMP, or education) because it feels like each one is risking being a big waste of time. recently I think I've been getting over it, shutting out my advisor's [distorted] voice in my head that says everything I do needs to be towards getting another SOSP or OSDI paper (after it occurred to me that Jiri, who just graduated, never had a top conference publication himself until this very same one I was on, in his last year), and just plugging away at code to make various immediate improvements. it feels good for the default activity during the working day to be "hacking" rather than the old "worrying".
* (check it out, I have an erdös number now! when I told my dad, who's a neurologist and whose number is probably large and due to incidental collaboration with statisticians, to brag about it, I asked what his number was, he said "5; I'm on your birth certificate.")
over the summer (during which I was at Mozilla again), at one point I was visiting Facebook to play magic with zizzy and some of his friends. meeting one of them, I shared with him what my research was about, and was surprised how impressed by it he was - he pretty much bubbled with enthusiasm, saying how cool he thought it was that I was trying to tackle an "impossible" problem, trying to find tricks and concessions and so on to make it possible but still useful. it was a moment of perspective, a small culture shock (in the academia vs industry sense), and it lent some encouragement that even if I despair about what it takes to publish somewhere I'm still working on something cool and fun and... fulfilling. I hope I can keep that feeling from fading.