3 Topics I Am Exploring In My Life Right Now as a Mid Career Software Engineer

There are 3 topics I am actively thinking about a lot these days:

Topic #1: Software Engineering Careers

I am interested in Software Engineering Career development because I've been in the industry almost 8 years, nearly half of which has been spent at Warner Bros Discovery. Before that I spent some time at AWS and in the gaming industry in Vancouver, Canada.

And my hope is that over the next 2-3 years, I'll be able to specialize in Data Science or Cybersecurity. The intersection of these is likely to become super important as sophisticated AI tools get utilized by cybercriminals to target non tech savvy individuals.

We're at the beginning of an AI cybersecurity arms race.

Topic #2: Artificial Intelligence

I first got interested in AI when I took Introduction to Artificial Intelligence in college (@UBC) during the upper years of my CS degree (2014-2015). Then with ChatGPT's release in November 2022 and GPT-4's release in March 2023, the world has been obsessed with AI.

Since then, I have learned a lot about the importance of Deep Learning, Natural Language Processing, and AI Ethics.

The latter being critical as humans often start using a piece of technology before they fully understand the negative effects of it, especially at scale. We did that with fire, nuclear energy, oil and social media.

Topic #3: Minimalist Productivity

I also have an interest in learning more about productivity.

It's one of those fun rabbit holes I find myself exploring often but have to be mindful as it's often easy to get sucked into "How to do The Thing efficiently" as opposed to just "Doing The Thing" I'm supposed to do.

With second brain tools like Notion, Obsidian, and various note taking apps, learning about "organization" can quickly become overwhelming.

To overcome this, I'd like to explore minimalist productivity.

If any of the above resonates, feel free to reach out!