value function learning - by helen

this has been a year of defied expectations. actually, they weren’t just defied. they were turned on their heads and then run over by a couple of cars. going into this year, i thought that by now i would’ve published a couple hot papers, gotten a real job (at least one that doesn’t kick me out after 3 years), maybe even gotten engaged. today i can report that i at least have retained my current job (still getting kicked out in 1.6 years) but i haven’t gotten a paper accepted all year and it’s now been 3 months (and counting) that i haven’t run a single experiment or written a single word of a new paper. by all accounts, my life has kind of (read: completely) derailed this year: i’m now 30 and single, i make less than i did at 22, and i’m not even doing my job right. for no earthly reason, though, i’m actually really happy. i think the greatest lesson i’ve learned this year is that i can’t predict the future. this is obvious, you say, everyone knows this. but now i don’t even try to pre

this has been a year of defied expectations. actually, they weren’t just defied. they were turned on their heads and then run over by a couple of cars. going into this year, i thought that by now i would’ve published a couple hot papers, gotten a real job (at least one that doesn’t kick me out after 3 years), maybe even gotten engaged. today i can report that i at least have retained my current job (still getting kicked out in 1.6 years) but i haven’t gotten a paper accepted all year and it’s now been 3 months (and counting) that i haven’t run a single experiment or written a single word of a