A Year at Google Brain (2020)
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A Year at Google Brain (2020)
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Re: A Year at Google Brain (2020)
#2This is incredibly well-written and a great peek behind the curtain of industrial vs academic ML research.
One question: can you elaborate a little on your point about intellectual diversity?
Re: A Year at Google Brain (2020)
#3Great post. An interesting aphorism I used to spout was “to never listen to a first year PhD student sing praise of their PhD experience.” Though that was aimed at commodity phd students in regular universities not at people who can just choose to work at Google Brain if they feel like it.
But ignoring that one persons warning about PhD still sounded like he had the typical arrogance contained by every person who ever did a PhD (including me). If someone says “don’t do it” and your reaction is to not even follow up with questions perhaps you should acknowledge you already know why they’re saying that! It’s still not clear to me a person of this cadre need a PhD in a technical field in this day and age; they might contribute just as much faster if they chose any other route.
Re: A Year at Google Brain (2020)
#4> While I’m interested in machine learning, I’m not convinced that today’s AI is anywhere near as profound as electricity or fire
This seems a not too uncommon experience among CS people where machine learning loses its interest once they understand the magic
Re: A Year at Google Brain (2020)
#5I didn't expect to see this here! Happy to answer questions. (There's also a discussion on Twitter: https://twitter.com/akshaykagrawal/status/136827691658779443...)
Re: A Year at Google Brain (2020)
#6I have nothing of value to add except that seeing someone do what they love and enjoy, greatly warms my heart.
Good luck with everything Akshay!!
Re: A Year at Google Brain (2020)
#7This is incredibly well-written and a great peek behind the curtain of industrial vs academic ML research. One question: can you elaborate a little on your point about intellectual diversity?
Sure! While Google Brain is focused specifically on AI, Stanford as a whole conducts research across a very wide range of disciplines. As a result, my network at Stanford has a more diverse collection of interests. As a PhD candidate I have worked with or am connected to people interested in neuroscience, radiation treatment planning, finance, control, economics, computer systems, and (yes) machine learning, among other topics.
Of course there's nothing wrong with focusing specifically on AI. It's just that I wanted to develop my research sensibilities in a more diverse environment.
edit: & thank you for the kind words!
Re: A Year at Google Brain (2020)
#8I didn't expect to see this here! Happy to answer questions. (There's also a discussion on Twitter: https://twitter.com/akshaykagrawal/status/136827691658779443... )
Read this on the weekend, and found a interesting branch of mathematics from your links. Thanks so much!
Re: A Year at Google Brain (2020)
#9Great post. An interesting aphorism I used to spout was “to never listen to a first year PhD student sing praise of their PhD experience.” Though that was aimed at commodity phd students in regular universities not at people who can just choose to work at Google Brain if they feel like it. But ignoring that one persons warning about PhD still sounded like he had the typical arrogance contained by every person who eve…
I'm now in my third year of my PhD and enjoying it more than ever, so there's that at least!
In all seriousness, I totally acknowledge that the variance in satisfaction with a PhD is very large. I'm lucky to have a great advisor and incredible labmates; my happiness with the program is largely due to them.
Re: A Year at Google Brain (2020)
#10Incredible post and very useful!