Career

The first time I worked at a startup I was surprised by how much I missed the whiteboard — the slow, speculative kind of thinking that doesn’t need to ship by Friday. But I also noticed how much faster I got at deciding what mattered. Academic research can afford to be thorough in ways that companies can’t, but that thoroughness sometimes becomes a way of avoiding commitment. I carry both habits now. I’m not sure they’re fully reconciled, but I think that tension is useful.

I’ve lived in four cities across three countries since I left home for university. Each move felt like starting over, and also like carrying everything forward. Academia and industry are the same. I’ve never fully belonged to either. I think too practically for some rooms and too theoretically for others. For a while that felt like a problem. Now it mostly feels like the right shape for the kind of work I want to do.