Pre-ISSCC 17

Why? To write more.

On the plane right now to ISSCC. It's been a not great traveling experience so far, but we'll see how it finishes. I hate how research always gets in the way of my only external-to-CSL social life. The one week my friends come into town (week is generous, more like long weekend) I have to be away at a conference. No one knew a priori, so there was no reason for me not to go, but in hindsight, it's actually a surprisingly difficult choice to make.

I miss my friends a lot, and I hate how binary the choice ends up being between research and them. Especially when I'm just not that enthusiastic about research. Last year, this conference was a big motivator for me. Not in the sense that I came here, saw a lot ideas, and knew what I wanted to do. It was moreso in the sense that I knew I wanted to do something. That's not atypical of me, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

I'm also supposed to have a [hopefully final?] interview with a start-up this week. I'm still not sure if this is just my sense of wanting to do something new, or if there's a real, valid interest in this. The whole startup thing, it's kind of like my master's degree honestly. I was very, very confident that this is what I wanted to do, and that it would allow me to take the jobs and opportunities in the places I wanted. So far, I'm not sure of that. I still feel the same way about being a part of a hardware startup, but that's again not so much an overwhelming confirmation of that choice so much as it is a clear rejection of the complement.