Well said. While reading this post, I am thinking like I am writing for myself. I have a similar mind to yours. My dream is to get into FAANG companies and then do what I can enjoy! I am sure this post will influence my self-belief and accelerate my progress toward my goal. Thank you for this blog post and for being an inspiration to many of us.
Wow. I am glad that I subscribed to your newsletter. And started doing your courses too (since did not find such succent course content anywhere especially with transformers and attention). Everything you mentioned reflects what's in my mind too. Small difference, you started career after PhD, I progressed from boring scrum teams to incubation teams, doing PhD in part-time (thesis getting ready). But finally made redundant too. Of-course failed FAANG Interview too. So, in all the midst now I am in consulting and startup, career mentoring journey. You progressed with content creator. I am now enjoying my day job as contractor and evening, weekend with my own seeding activities with LLM, small customers who need solutions. Of-course employed few and started a company too. Let's see how the impact factor going to be. But, I guess we are happiest people too. đŸ˜€
Hi Damien - thanks for sharing the story about your journey. It was a very good read and it takes courage to write about it openly, like not making it in certain jobs. You probably know the expression/saying: "If you love your job, then there is no day of work." It seems that you have found what you love the most, which is explaining/teaching complex topics in lay-people terms without making it too trivial. I always read all your posts and follow all your courses. It is such great content and I cannot wait for you what you will post/release next year.
I wish you and your family a healthy and prosperous 2024!
This is such an incredible journey, Damien. thanks a lot for sharing! You don’t probably realise it just yet, but you’re a dropping a massive goldmine of knowledge on me right now.
I do have one question though, maybe you can share with me your perspective.
I’m a part-time content creator and i’m thinking of transitioning full-time too. The thing is, I don’t always find it very exciting or challenging to talk about topics I already know (for ex, the basic ML algorithms, although I know this can generate a lot of engagement )
in my case, I’ve taken the habit to approach technical writing, and blogging in general, as a way to summarize and document my learning journey. In such a way, I can keep motivated to produce content because this allows to grow at the same time. However, by writing only about the new things I learn, i know cannot make a living off this
Did you experience this? How do you find a balance between writing about the things that move you and challenge you and the things you already master and probably find less interest in writing about.
Personally I spend most of the time learning about a subject before explaining it. Even if you think you know it, you probably don't know it well enough to clearly explain it. Most of the subjects I have been talking about are subjects I wanted to learn more about. I don't recall a time where I was able to write about a subject without spending hours or days reading about it first.
Also I tend to talk about the new stuff. How could I know about it without learning it first?
It has been a pleasure to read your professional and human journey in the last newsletter. If you come to Spain, be sure to visit us, a good Valencian paella is waiting for you. Best regards
Dec 28, 2023·edited Dec 28, 2023Liked by Damien Benveniste
I am glad you are moving away from prepping others for interviews because there are quite a few services out there already. I enjoy your ML-focused posts here and on LinkedIn, although I don't check LinkedIn much after I have subscribed your newsletter. The benefits I get from your shorter posts on LinkedIn are the comments from like-minded to share their experiences. I enjoyed the OMSCS quite a bit because of the interactions I had with many professionals with diverse backgrounds. It was a lot of work though :) Looking forward to be part of your learning journey in 2024. Can you consider adding resources that you find useful during your research so that we can go deeper if we wanted to? You used to do that in your earlier newsletters. Happy Holidays and Go Jackets! :)
Interesting journey to read - particularly how the different events informed your career decisions.
You use Canva for diagrams and visuals. Do you also use Canva to create the gifs?
Yes
Well said. While reading this post, I am thinking like I am writing for myself. I have a similar mind to yours. My dream is to get into FAANG companies and then do what I can enjoy! I am sure this post will influence my self-belief and accelerate my progress toward my goal. Thank you for this blog post and for being an inspiration to many of us.
Very well written! I was hooked! I have an AI substack but man there is just so much to learn from you!
Wow. I am glad that I subscribed to your newsletter. And started doing your courses too (since did not find such succent course content anywhere especially with transformers and attention). Everything you mentioned reflects what's in my mind too. Small difference, you started career after PhD, I progressed from boring scrum teams to incubation teams, doing PhD in part-time (thesis getting ready). But finally made redundant too. Of-course failed FAANG Interview too. So, in all the midst now I am in consulting and startup, career mentoring journey. You progressed with content creator. I am now enjoying my day job as contractor and evening, weekend with my own seeding activities with LLM, small customers who need solutions. Of-course employed few and started a company too. Let's see how the impact factor going to be. But, I guess we are happiest people too. đŸ˜€
Again thanks for sharing.
Hi Damien - thanks for sharing the story about your journey. It was a very good read and it takes courage to write about it openly, like not making it in certain jobs. You probably know the expression/saying: "If you love your job, then there is no day of work." It seems that you have found what you love the most, which is explaining/teaching complex topics in lay-people terms without making it too trivial. I always read all your posts and follow all your courses. It is such great content and I cannot wait for you what you will post/release next year.
I wish you and your family a healthy and prosperous 2024!
This is such an incredible journey, Damien. thanks a lot for sharing! You don’t probably realise it just yet, but you’re a dropping a massive goldmine of knowledge on me right now.
I do have one question though, maybe you can share with me your perspective.
I’m a part-time content creator and i’m thinking of transitioning full-time too. The thing is, I don’t always find it very exciting or challenging to talk about topics I already know (for ex, the basic ML algorithms, although I know this can generate a lot of engagement )
in my case, I’ve taken the habit to approach technical writing, and blogging in general, as a way to summarize and document my learning journey. In such a way, I can keep motivated to produce content because this allows to grow at the same time. However, by writing only about the new things I learn, i know cannot make a living off this
Did you experience this? How do you find a balance between writing about the things that move you and challenge you and the things you already master and probably find less interest in writing about.
Thank you,
Happy holidays and keep up the good work!
Personally I spend most of the time learning about a subject before explaining it. Even if you think you know it, you probably don't know it well enough to clearly explain it. Most of the subjects I have been talking about are subjects I wanted to learn more about. I don't recall a time where I was able to write about a subject without spending hours or days reading about it first.
Also I tend to talk about the new stuff. How could I know about it without learning it first?
Yes I agree with that.
Maybe providing a fresh perspective for explaining complex topics is also the thing to do to keep engaged in the process and make readers interested.
I try to do this in my newsletter!
Just in case if you’re curious đŸ˜„:
https://thetechbuffet.substack.com
I share the sentiment of one doesn't really understand a topic until they can explain it to others.
It has been a pleasure to read your professional and human journey in the last newsletter. If you come to Spain, be sure to visit us, a good Valencian paella is waiting for you. Best regards
Oh I like the idea!
I am glad you are moving away from prepping others for interviews because there are quite a few services out there already. I enjoy your ML-focused posts here and on LinkedIn, although I don't check LinkedIn much after I have subscribed your newsletter. The benefits I get from your shorter posts on LinkedIn are the comments from like-minded to share their experiences. I enjoyed the OMSCS quite a bit because of the interactions I had with many professionals with diverse backgrounds. It was a lot of work though :) Looking forward to be part of your learning journey in 2024. Can you consider adding resources that you find useful during your research so that we can go deeper if we wanted to? You used to do that in your earlier newsletters. Happy Holidays and Go Jackets! :)
Great journey. Please keep it going.