I Learned That Doing Something “Cool” Isn't Enough for Me

I’ve always been interested in computers and AI. At first, a lot of the excitement came from just figuring out how things worked. Training a model, writing Python code, seeing an accuracy number go up, or finally getting something to run after staring at an error message forever feels pretty awesome.

But once I started doing actual research, I started thinking more about what all of this technology could be used for. One of my projects used satellite imagery and AI to predict poverty levels, and I also helped build a community website that connected people with resources and allowed residents to report problems.

That changed the way I looked at technology. I still think building an impressive model is cool. But now my next question is usually, “Okay, but what can somebody actually do with this?”

I don’t want to spend my life making complicated things just because they are complicated. I want to understand how technology can solve problems that real people deal with.

What life has taught me so far: The coolest technology isn’t always the technology with the fanciest code. Sometimes it’s the thing that makes one person’s life a little easier.