From sci-fi writer to AI engineer: a strange journey

This post tries to 1) explain what I’ve been up to all this time & 2) send some positivity into the world :) Will continuously update beyond this initial draft.

I recently started reading a sci-fi novel (Contact by Carl Sagan, it’s amazing), the first one since 2020, and the sense of awe and wonder is all too familiar. Flashback to shortly before high school graduation, I wrote a very corny sci-fi piece about a woman trapped as AI and my IB thesis on how sci-fi “uses religion to criticize capitalism’s creation of androids” (clearly I have become complicit now :). For someone who aspired to be some UN leader back then, I’m surprised and feel really lucky to be making a living out of a “PhD-preferred” job that includes the following:

• developing efficient, scalable state-of-the-art AI systems
• training production models for novel use cases
• conducting novel research and experiment with the latest technologies

I am sooo far from “making it” but am also kind of living my dream.

My LinkedIn pretty much tells the story of how I got here. I started out as a jack-of-all-trades and was acceptably okay at everything except for maybe a knack for writing, and optimized for being communicative and diplomatic. (I can sound so “non-technical” at times that some people were surprised to learn I’m an engineer.) Although always inquisitive, I did not grind.

So the beginning was pretty difficult and I second-guessed my potential for a long time. There were some inklings: Intro to Deep Learning was the only class where I’d go to all the lectures and try to ask at least one question each time, as well as the only class I staffed. I was fortunate to learn from peers who had been doing this for much longer, which unfortunately entailed sometimes discouraging external feedback. So I was sequentially eliminating alternative careers up until graduation, and only committed after that.

My one regret is I wish I also studied math and stayed closer to science. But this is just the beginning and I’ll trust the journey :D

p.s. my advice for anyone trying to break into a field with very low initial capital:

1. Be nice – even to the gatekeepers. And don’t gatekeep once you’re there.
2. Assess whatever capital you have and use it to make the path manageably difficult instead of impossible. I was facing a huge knowledge gap and had literally zero connections 2 years ago. But I was lucky to have grown up in China with a strong foundation for learning and self-critique, which I used to my advantage.
3. Once you commit, full send. “I can see myself doing this and I’m willing to have almost too much self-belief.”
4. Get mentors! Initially all you need is 1 yes, 1 person that validates your efforts. As your network grows over time, pay it forward by helping others out. But don’t blindly follow them - a very accomplished mentor once told me “nothing makes up for the lack of experience”, which I’ve found to be less helpful compared to this next point…
5. Growth mindset. You will receive a lot of feedback if you’re trying hard enough. I grew up sensitive and tried to avoid criticism whenever possible. I had to train myself to believe that failures and criticism are good. I think “having thick skin” doesn’t mean hurting less but rather smiling through it.
6. Take care of yourself. I was miserable after leaving all clubs and hobbies to “catch up”, which was completely unnecessary in hindsight.

To all of the queens who are fighting alone / Baby, you’re not dancin’ on your own – Kings & Queens, Ava Max