Transitions

Was there a way to reduce my reports at Google so that I could get more hands on? It was a question on my mind about a year ago when I was considering what to do next, and I thought I’d turn the thought experiment into an actual one by bringing it up my manager.

Based on that discussion, we found a pathway to reassign half my reports to other managers. This change meant that I would hand off the radiology AI efforts that I’d been on since the start of 2017, a difficult decision that paved the way for a continued set of difficult decisions and led me on my current path.

Part of the team I continued to lead during my final months at Google was exploring a new research effort into building a foundation model to help on a wide range of geospatial problems including health, economics, and the environment. Those final months taught me a lot, and while I left Google before the work was ready for publication, I was really glad to learn that the team’s paper just came out. The news reached me as I was working to convert our home garage into a test site for my more recent, post-Google efforts, about as hands on as I could possibly get.