Thread by @Inoryy

After high school, I ended up working odd jobs, e.g., as a night shift cleaner at a fast-food restaurant. One especially nasty night, I decided that I had to at least try to get more out of my life and began self-studying coding every free minute I had, up to 20 hrs/day.

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In March 2010, I landed my first programming job. Paid peanuts and involved legacy PHP4 codebase but meant the world that somebody took a chance on me. Five years later, I was a senior web dev at @KNPLabs with great bosses, mentors, and friends @weaverryan and @leannapelham.

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@KNPLabs @weaverryan @leannapelham At some point, I decided to try and somehow contribute to something I was interested in since childhood -- AI, which in practice meant rebuilding my career almost from the ground up. Having virtually no maths background, I began with an undergrad in statistics at @unitartu.

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@KNPLabs @weaverryan @leannapelham @unitartu In March 2015, I quit my job to focus 100% on my studies. With just one semester done, I had no idea what I was doing. Most people thought I was crazy. Honestly, I did too. I wrote dozens of unsent emails asking for my job back. But I stuck through it, despite many setbacks.

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@KNPLabs @weaverryan @leannapelham @unitartu In March 2020, I am joining @DeepMind as a research engineer, following an internship, led by @ibab_dm and the incredibly talented #AlphaStar team. It's been wild and imposter syndrome galore but, just like ten years ago, it means the world that somebody took a chance on me.

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