figuring out Jasmine 2027 plans! which includes moving to the bay, but has recently started to look less like technical ai safety.. tis a bit scary to consider shedding the technical AIS trajectory but i trust my gut + ik it will figure itself out… let sf do its magic etc etc
As someone who has recently gotten out of a dark pit filled with league of legends and twitch streams, It's really encouraging to see someone make the leap while carrying a similar scar and making references to it like; PETTHENEEL or "spaceglide the keyboard"
I think that leaping is not about variance, like MATS has 4x EV as 1 semester if and only if you're willing to waste a semester to have 25% probability of getting into MATS. It's more about overcoming cognitive biases or social expectations which is different.
:))) you’re amazing! one day i want to hear how you feel about swapping one set of institutions&planes for another, swapping a diff incentive structure in wholesale. but long after neelmats is over. could life be a sequence/series of these decisions?
You write that "The amount of things that have happened to me in the last 2 months is high enough not to be substack article compressible anymore". Plus I personally have kept a diary since dec 2024 and it's still going great
I don't know you v well but you're right where you need to be. I never regretted dropping out of my Masters. Always good to tighten the irl feedback loop. Semester-long step sizes are unusable at these timescales.
I leaped and it went very badly for me. Still, I have never regretted leaping.
you are AWESOME celeste.
on another note, ty for writing and publishing as always - i have been scared recently and i will take the fear and Leap
<3
what r u leaping to :)
figuring out Jasmine 2027 plans! which includes moving to the bay, but has recently started to look less like technical ai safety.. tis a bit scary to consider shedding the technical AIS trajectory but i trust my gut + ik it will figure itself out… let sf do its magic etc etc
yess! we should rly talk! poss next saturday when im in berkeley for mats-closing-events? unless u’ll be in sf sooner
yesss, next week sounds great <3
I couldn't be prouder of your technical AIS trajectory and would be excited to see what you pick up next! Always rooting for your success.
thank you abdur!! appreciate you so much!
As someone who has recently gotten out of a dark pit filled with league of legends and twitch streams, It's really encouraging to see someone make the leap while carrying a similar scar and making references to it like; PETTHENEEL or "spaceglide the keyboard"
Congrats, and thank you!!
druttut once told me he thought my father got lost in the forest as well because he thought my ap ivern was that bad
lmao that's so on-brand for him
I think that leaping is not about variance, like MATS has 4x EV as 1 semester if and only if you're willing to waste a semester to have 25% probability of getting into MATS. It's more about overcoming cognitive biases or social expectations which is different.
:))) you’re amazing! one day i want to hear how you feel about swapping one set of institutions&planes for another, swapping a diff incentive structure in wholesale. but long after neelmats is over. could life be a sequence/series of these decisions?
have you considered keeping a diary?
Yes! Planning to get back to journalling, why in particular do you ask?
You write that "The amount of things that have happened to me in the last 2 months is high enough not to be substack article compressible anymore". Plus I personally have kept a diary since dec 2024 and it's still going great
truly deserving!! So happy for you! big bets! It was fun interacting with you 🤝. Wishing the best and rooting for you Celeste.
LFG!! I’d been kind of spiraling this week. The AI future finally passed my blood brain barrier. But no time for that. It’s time to leap
Congratulations again! well deserved.
needed this thx
I don't know you v well but you're right where you need to be. I never regretted dropping out of my Masters. Always good to tighten the irl feedback loop. Semester-long step sizes are unusable at these timescales.
U got this
I'm so happy it went well for you. Wishing the best for your research phase with Neel too. I guess I should listen to what you say in this post....
total legend :)
the fucking microphones reference im crying. im so happy for you. you're motivating me so, so hard.. i'm taking the leap, too, celeste
yeah we should hang out let us hang out
im crying in front of my laptop right now
Congrats!!! This whole multi-month saga was crazy fun to read along to :D
Le side question: Do you have the code up anywhere? I'm incredibly curious what nats-level research is like 🤔
the code is capital B bad, but here it is, we are working on unslopping it.
We did not write a line of it ourselves, all claude
https://github.com/ceselder/cot-oracle