To Runpod – the coolest company I worked at so far – and, what's next?

Okay, Sorry, I didn't expect to have been gone so quickly (I do believe this is standard silicon valley procedure, so I should've seen it coming – that's on me)

Firstly, I think I want to ensure that this is clear - this was my decision to resign, I take full ownership of it, I need some time to recoup my mental health and get my academics together, and all in all ended up realizing it's better for me to take time off and recoup that (and my relationships with some of my friends), rather than lose that.

I will miss you, I was one of the first few employees ever hired at Runpod, I've known and witnessed it's growth likely better than anyone else here – I will miss the people, I will miss you guys so much, I was there when Runpod was a little wee baby and watching it grow from scratch has been an incredible experience, that I am ever going to be incredibly grateful for

The Why

Okay, probably want to answer the question first, I've been stressed out due to juggling academics and work, and my friendships – and my academics and friendships have suffered, I haven't been as good a friend as I have wanted to be, and I have a metric ton of academic work remaining (which I hope to have finished as soon as possible).

I looked around, self reflected, really really thought about it – and yeah, I think I am going to be better of focusing inwards for the next few months

That is the jist of it, and I am sorry if it's a little boring – it really is that, I view behavior as a matter of habit – I am scared of overdoing it

I miss you already

I can write paragraphs about how excellent each person was at runpod, I am going to write a message (one by one) in your DMs telling you how excellent you have been (give it some time though, it takes me a bit to write).

But I remember every single one of you, and how excellent you all are, thanks for being in my lives ❤️

I do want to specially call out Mo, Geovany, Hector, Tim and Zhen (I don't want to diminish anyone not here, but I was very very close with the peeps here). thanks for being in my lives y'all

Zhen – for creating this really fucking cool company, you built it from scratch, I've seen how hard you work, you really kept to your own motto of caring.

Tim and Mo for being these excellent shining beacons of light that forever – you shall be lighthouses for new ships to come

and Geovany and Hector, gosh you both have been amazing people to work with – I could not have done it without you

What's next for me

My friendships and my academics – I've so much catching up to do with friends I've missed out on (you won't believe!), this christmas is likely overbooked for me.

And yeah getting my academics straight

I need to work severely on my own self in the upcoming months, focusing on growing my own self esteem, making more things for myself, and just catch up on lost sleep

some self-reflection

I think I need to do more "active" decision making, and get more things in control rather than expect the tides to favor me as I row along. I think had I done this I could've steered myself into a better situation.

words of advice for runpod?

3 bits

1. I suspect there is another llm-price drop coming along, now that specialist computers are closer (sean sube disagrees, he could be right), competing in this market is strategically very different

2. Give value to emotional labor, this is a general advice to people in tech spaces to be honest, but value that comes from charisma, things that bond teams together, hr-related work, team planning – have extensive value – give value there, appreciate teams that do the labor it takes to organize the labor – barring which, the cards can come falling down

3. llm written responses sometimes feel ignorant in interpersonal contexts >.<, love you but please be mindful

something good news

I unexpectedly won a hackathon today for https://c-base.org/ (more at its wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C-base)

– the trophy is a rolling trophy, I went to show of Tim's work with (https://huggingface.co/blog/NERDDISCO/lerobotjs) and a robot codebase i built with it (https://robots.river.berlin/)

didn't realize it was a competition, so that was wild