I don't think I quite follow your criticism of FLOP/s; can you say more about why you think it's not a useful unit? It seems like you're saying that a linear extrapolation of FLOP/s isn't accurate to estimate the compute requirements of larger models. (I know there are a variety of criticisms that can be made, but I'm interested in better understanding your point above)

How'd you decide to go focus on going into research, even before you decided that developing technical skills would be helpful for that path?

Thanks for the great post. Ryan, I'm curious how you figured this at an early stage:

I figured that in the longer term, my greatest chance at having a substantial impact lay in my potential as a researcher, but that I would have to improve my maths and programming skills to realize that.