Thinking About Computers

Justin Wong: Generative AI, Crowdsourced Data, Video Arena

A conversation with Justin Wong. Justin is a CS PhD student at UC Berkeley studying artificial intelligence and one of the creators of Video Arena. Socials: Website: https://people.eecs.berkeley.edu/~wong.justin/ Twitter: https://x.com/justinywong_ Video Arena: https://www.videoarena.tv/

Natacha Crooks: Life as a Berkeley CS Professor

A conversation with Natacha Crooks. Natacha is an assistant professor of computer science at UC Berkeley, a co-director of the Berkeley Sky Computing Lab, and the recipient of the ACM Dennis Ritchie Doctoral Research Award for the Best Dissertation in Systems Research. Socials: website: ⁠https://nacrooks.github.io/ twitter: https://twitter.com/siobhcroo 00:00 Intro 04:44 Deciding to be a Professor 07:53 Having Three Phd Advisors Quit 16:16 Co-Advising 25:05 Daily Life of a Professor 32:15 Social Life as a Professor 39:37 Research Quality vs Quantity 44:31 The Pressure to Switch to Machine Learning Research 49:42 Top School Privilege and Elitism in Academia 56:31 Choosing a Grad School 59:06 Advice

Justin Jaffray: Databases, Blogging, and Computer Science Communication

A conversation with Justin Jaffray. Justin is a software engineer at Datadog who writes the weekly Null Bitmap newsletter on interesting topics in the world of Databases. Socials: website: ⁠https://justinjaffray.com/ twitter: https://twitter.com/justinjaffray newsletter: https://buttondown.email/jaffray --- Chapters 00:00 Introduction and Newsletters 07:11 Drama in Github Repos 10:58 Convictions in Academia vs Industry 20:04 The Role of Data in Machine Learning 22:03 Using Math as a Tool in Software Engineering 27:10 The Lack of Accessible Content in Database Theory 29:17 Why Are There So Many Type Theory Nerds Online? 36:52 The Trade-Off Between Notation and Intuition in Technical Papers 44:15 The Value of Entertainment in Educational Content 55:09 Hobbies vs Main Hustles

#16 - Leonid Grinberg: From Software Engineer to Lawyer

A conversation with Leonid Grinberg, a lawyer at Arbol and former software engineer at Bridgewater and at The New York Times. We discuss the differences between life as a software engineer and life as a lawyer, working at an infamous hedge fund, and going to math camp with Sam Bankman-Fried. --- Chapters 00:00 From Software Engineer to Lawyer 06:50 The Cult of Bridgewater 12:22 Engineering at The New York Times 14:09 Lawyer vs Software Engineer 24:17 Career Paths in Law 29:26 Working in Big Law vs Big Tech 32:00 The Green Shirt Story 38:12 Law School 48:21 Law Journals Are Run By Students 52:14 Legal Academia 01:03:01 Career Paths After Big Law 01:09:11 SBF & Math Camp 01:23:47 Rivals 01:30:28 Whats The Deal With Traffic Laws 01:36:31 Writing 01:39:05 Living in Louisiana 01:49:48 Suburbia Life 01:54:42 Traveling The Country By Amtrak Train 02:00:42 Jello 02:08:12 Advice

#15 - Ritwik Gupta: AI Policy and Impactful AI Research

A conversation with Ritwik Gupta, a tech director at the Defense Innovation Unit and a PhD student at UC Berkeley in Berkeley AI Research (BAIR). Ritwik's research explores applications of computer vision to real-world disaster recovery. We discuss the intersection of AI and Policy, research aimed at real-world impact, challenges of balancing a full time job with doing a PhD, and experiences starting a PhD after spending years in industry. Ritwik's socials: website:⁠⁠ https://ritwikgupta.me/ twitter: ⁠⁠https://twitter.com/Ritwik_G --- Chapters 00:00 Intro 01:21 Transition from Bioinformatics to Computer Science 05:44 Working Before Grad School 12:28 Deciding to do a PhD 14:53 Imposter Syndrome in the PhD 21:34 Going Back to School After Time in Industry 26:46 Juggling a Full-Time Job and a PhD 32:45 Citations Counts vs Real World Impact 38:07 Intersection of Policy and Computer Science 39:57 Management Skills and Transitioning Roles 45:09 Experiences So Far in the PhD 48:58 The Role of Ethics Statements in Papers 01:06:36 The Berkeley Climate Initiative 01:13:44 Advice