New Directions

For the last three years I’ve been a computer science grad student at Princeton’s Center for Information Technology Policy. I received a master’s degree late last year, and was working toward my PhD. CITP is full of talented people doing important work. I’ve learned a lot and became close friends with many of my colleagues. It’s been a particular privilege to study under my brilliant advisor, Ed Felten.

The function of a computer science PhD program is to prepare you for a career doing academic computer science research. I went to grad school expecting to excel at this, but in recent months it has become clear to me that my talents are better suited to writing about public policy. So I’ve asked Princeton for a one-year leave of absence. I’ll have an option to return to school in 2012, but I don’t expect to exercise it.

For you, my readers, this means you’ll be hearing from me more often. I’ve committed to spend the majority of my time writing for Ars Technica, the best technology news site on the web. I’ll link to some of those articles here, and I’m also hoping to do more original writing here at Bottom-up.

For the editors in the audience: my relationship with Ars leaves me some time to work on other projects. So if you’d like to pay me to write for you, please get in touch.