Ryan Peterman

Because, like, you're a professor of computer science.

And they're like, no, no, this is how I work.

And I was like, oh.

This is not going to set you up for success if we actually have to get you writing code in broad here.

I love statistics.

I think I'll never not love it, but I think it's the craziest field.

And what I mean by crazy is...

It's a field that fundamentally sells people the idea that they can use statistical methods in real life.

But in reality, what they do is do pure mathematics and study how statistical methods work in an idealized theoretical world.

And in pure math, as an undergrad, I did pure math, and I loved things like number theory.

In pure math, you're just period.

It's pure.

You prove it.

It's internally coherent.

There's no attempt to reconcile with reality.

Reality doesn't even matter.

You're just like, there's rules.

We follow the rules.

We're in this internally consistent system.

And then in super applied fields like software engineering, you're just like, well, the thing runs.