@cerebras IPO'd this week 🔥🔥🔥
More people reached out to me in the last few days is somehow higher than on my birthdays!!! Many thanks to every single one of you.
In one of my first conversations at Cerebras, @nataliavassilie told me she had this feeling of restlessness. There's a phrase in Russian for it ("шило в попе", which translates, not at all elegantly, to "an awl in the ass"). The inability to sit still. The need to keep building, keep moving, keep learning.
That echoed a lot for me. I can't sit still either. I want to learn, develop and never plateau. This is exactly how I felt being a part of Cerebras.
When I joined we didn't have PyTorch support. I got to work on the first implementation of our transformer network, and I still remember @andrewdfeldman DMing me on slack, "you can do it, daria." I did. We did.
As a part of being at Cerebras I worked in 3 countries. I started in Russia, went to Canada, and landed in the US. Mostly during COVID, mostly figuring out Western countries in real time. I wanted to express heartfelt gratitude to Andrew Fetter, who resolved obstacle after obstacle for me anywhere I was. Honestly it felt like he cared about me the way you'd care about your own daughter. Thank you!
Five years in, I'd choose Cerebras again without a second of hesitation. And I am SO excited about what we build next.
PS I'm writing this from Singapore on my last night here. @aiDotEngineer was incredible! Huge thanks to the organizers! I gave a talk here, recorded with @ATPinsights, got to hang with @howdymj and @mint0themax (thank you for inviting me!!), and Delane Foo was the best Singaporean food guide! THAT FOOD. THOSE VIEWS. So clean, so welcoming.
The moment that stayed with me: a group of high schoolers came up after my talk with questions, real curiosity. Hungry to start building. They told me I inspired them. Honestly, they inspired me a lot more!
Motivation and the right environment are very important. I had that early thanks to my parents, and Cerebras has been that for me as an adult. That's the whole point of building cool things in my opinion. To change the world a little, and to be the environment someone else gets to grow inside of.
This post turned out to be much longer than I anticipated, but I just did not feel like deleting any parts of it. I am exhausted and humbled. Singapore, I am SO coming back. 🇸🇬
