How does one choose a career? For me, it’s more chaotic than I’d like it to be. However, I’m going to embrace and tame this chaos in 2025. This process will coalesce into a career by Spring of 2028, when I walk at SF State with an MS degree in Data Science and AI.
My ultimate goal is to truly understand how LLMs work. That’s the foundation of the hero’s journey I’m about to embark on. To do this, I’m going to have to develop skills related to computer science, statistics, machine learning, artificial intelligence, physics, data structures, programming, analysis of algorithms, database systems, software engineering, calculus, & probability and statistics. This is a steep mountain to climb, given where I currently sit with respect to these disciplines. Part of where I am now is to rewrite the self-limiting narratives I’ve told myself in the past, which led me to believe that I’m not capable of doing this. I am capable of doing this, no matter how hard it gets.
In the past, I’ve toiled away in private, often chasing seemingly random skills on a whim. While this process works for tackling the various problems that I’ve encountered as an IT contractor, I have to take a hard look at what I’ve done that’s effective, and throw out what’s not. Facing this will be difficult, but worthwhile. To streamline the process of learning, I’m going to document it on here, putting my learning process on display, warts & all.
To face this difficult, often lonely process, I need to cultivate my motivation, discipline, & focus. Now’s the time to prioritize learning, and to increase my tolerance for the pain associated with the learning process. I just graduated with a dual AS in Cybersecurity and Tech Support, so I want to continue this process as a non-academic, in service of eventually facing the academic world once again in the Fall semester of 2026.
In the meantime, I’m going to stay in shape, meditate, and reach out to friends and family for support along the way. I need to consciously reduce distractions that prevent me from achieving these goals in the coming years. This is not a resolution; it’s the culmination of a lifetime of curiosity, work, and ambition.
With that, here are my concrete, daily goals for this week:
Develop a curriculum geared toward meeting & exceeding the admission requirements for the DSAI MS
Solve at least 25 math problems
Use Kanban to set goals & track my progress
Establish & contribute to a mind map of everything I learn
This is by no means an exhaustive list, and I plan on iterating as I develop my strategy for the year. More specifics are to some in the next 7 days. After that, It’s all implementation! 2025 will be fun.
Here’s what I’m reading:
SF State’s Master of Science in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence overview
Daily updates from the Institute for the Study of War on the ongoing conflicts in the world