What to Do Next?

I recently watched this AI for Science video and really liked John Jumper's advice on thinking about career choices (minute 33).

"It's the gradient descent of life. Doing the right thing right now has worked out really well, and be open to the interesting things that will open up for you. I think, we're in one of the golden ages of biology, and AI, and biology. And it's really fun to live through that. So I think, like, don't be afraid to be locally optimal, basically, the opposite of Demis' advice."

I believe Steve Jobs was talking about the same idea as John in his iconic Stanford Commencement speech.

Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

Like Demis Hassabis or Elon Musk, it can be incredibly powerful to have a long term, life's work mission and work on that for many years to manifest it into existence. But it is also good to be open (especially when one doesn't feel like they have found that mission) to the interesting opportunities we find when we are actively trying to improve.

The question is, what is the loss function of life? It is probably different for everyone, and these days I find myself thinking about what it should mean for me.