work i like

I like working on cool problems and learning from smart people.

cool problems

A cool problem is something that makes me think “wow” or “oh damn” or “that’s interesting!”. It’s deliberately vague because I’m a noob who hasn’t experienced that much and unexpected things have ended up being cool to me.

Some traits that have contributed to me finding something cool in the past¹:

It’s within or applies knowledge from Computer Science.
It pushes the boundaries of my own knowledge - either I’m learning something new or I’m applying concepts that I recently learned.
It has a rationalisable² impact, which can either be to other developers and users of software or to social / global issues.
It may involve contributing to Open Source.
It has a good balance of big / hard problems and observable quick wins.

smart people

This is pretty straightforward but important. My intuition is that most people in the field, especially those involved in projects that I find cool, fulfil this easily.

I also think that smart people understand that they should be nice to work with or work for. I don’t have a preference for the size and type of organisation as long as I have good and empowering mentors.

last update: aug 2023

This is not an exhaustive list + this is not criteria that I expect to be completely fulfilled + this will grow every time I encounter something I find cool. ↩︎
This means that it doesn’t need to have already be demonstratably impactful as long as I’m convinced it will be eventually. ↩︎