{"id":11801,"date":"2016-07-16T16:12:55","date_gmt":"2016-07-16T16:12:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dabacon.org\/pontiff\/?p=11801"},"modified":"2016-07-16T16:12:55","modified_gmt":"2016-07-16T16:12:55","slug":"5-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dabacon.org\/pontiff\/2016\/07\/16\/5-years\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Years!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Five years ago I (it&#8217;s me Dave Bacon former supposed pseudo-professor and one time quantum pontiff) jumped off the academic ship, swam to shore, and put on a new set of clothes as a software developer for Google. Can it really have been five years?  Well I should probably update this blog so my mom knows what I&#8217;ve been up to.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I helped build and launch <a href=\"http:\/\/domains.google\">Google Domains<\/a>. From quantum physics professor to builder of domain name registrar. I bet you wouldn&#8217;t have predicted that one! Along the way I was lucky to be surrounded by a team of software engineers who were gracious enough to tell me when I was doing silly things, and show me the craft that is a modern software development. I may now, in fact, be a real software developer. Though this just means that I know how much I still need to master.<\/li>\n<li>We built a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dwell.com\/house-tours\/article\/weathering-steel-retreat-foothills-cascades\">cabin<\/a>! Well, we worked with wonderful <a href=\"http:\/\/johnstonarchitects.com\/\">architects<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.blackcapbuilders.com\/\">buiders<\/a> to construct &#8220;New Caelifera&#8221; over in the Methow Valley (about 4 hours east of Seattle).<br \/>\n<img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-11804\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dabacon.org\/pontiff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/IMG_20140914_140241566_HDR-1024x576.jpg?resize=525%2C295&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"New Caelifera\" width=\"525\" height=\"295\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dabacon.org\/pontiff\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/07\/IMG_20140914_140241566_HDR.jpg?resize=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dabacon.org\/pontiff\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/07\/IMG_20140914_140241566_HDR.jpg?resize=300%2C169&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dabacon.org\/pontiff\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/07\/IMG_20140914_140241566_HDR.jpg?resize=768%2C432&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dabacon.org\/pontiff\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/07\/IMG_20140914_140241566_HDR.jpg?resize=1568%2C883&amp;ssl=1 1568w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 525px) 100vw, 525px\" \/>I have to say that this was one of the funnest things I&#8217;ve done in my life. Who knew a dumpy software engineer could also be an aesthete. Even cooler, the end result is an awesome weekend place that you have to drive through a National Park to get to. I&#8217;ve been super spoiled.<\/li>\n<li>Lost: my sister, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.girdnerfuneralchapel.com\/obituaries\/Cathy-Bacon\/#!\/Obituary\">Catherine Bacon<\/a>, and my dog, the Test Dog. Life is precious and we should cherish it!<\/li>\n<li>Gained: a new puppy, Imma Dog Bacon. Imma dog? You&#8217;re a dog! Imma Dog!<br \/>\n<img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-11811\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/167.99.98.246\/pontiff\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/07\/13592225_10153494034341017_303055954402596396_n-e1468681935205.jpg?resize=525%2C700\" alt=\"Imma Dog\" width=\"525\" height=\"700\" \/><\/li>\n<li>Hobbies. <a href=\"http:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/1605.03266\">arXiv:1605.03266<\/a>. The difference between being a hobby scientist and a professional scientist is that when you&#8217;re a professional it&#8217;s &#8220;Fail. Fail. Fail. Fail. Fail. Fail. Fail. Fail. Fail. Success!&#8221; and when you&#8217;re a hobbiest it&#8217;s &#8220;Fffffffaaaaaiiiiiillllll. Fffffffaaaaaiiiiiillllll. Fffffffaaaaaiiiiiillllll. Fffffffaaaaaiiiiiillllll. Fffffffaaaaaiiiiiillllll. Fffffffaaaaaiiiiiillllll. Fffffffaaaaaiiiiiillllll. Fffffffaaaaaiiiiiillllll. Success?&#8221; Yes I&#8217;m that guy that reads your quantum computing papers at night after work for fun.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So maybe I&#8217;ll write another blog post in five years? Or maybe I should resurrect the Pontiff. I saw the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.scottaaronson.com\/blog\/\">Optimizer<\/a> the other day, and he suggested that since it&#8217;s hard for me to blog about quantum computing stuff what with Google involved as it is, I could blog about stuff from the past. But I&#8217;m more of a promethean than a pastoralist. It didn&#8217;t occur to me until later that there is an alternative solution, one that is particularly appealing to a quantum dude like myself: maybe I should start blogging about an alternative universe? I&#8217;ve always liked <a href=\"http:\/\/art.yale.edu\/file_columns\/0000\/0066\/borges.pdf\">Tl\u00f6n, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Five years ago I (it&#8217;s me Dave Bacon former supposed pseudo-professor and one time quantum pontiff) jumped off the academic ship, swam to shore, and put on a new set of clothes as a software developer for Google. Can it really have been five years? Well I should probably update this blog so my mom &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/dabacon.org\/pontiff\/2016\/07\/16\/5-years\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;5 Years!&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[76,87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-self-meet-center-center-meet-self","category-wheres-dabacon"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dabacon.org\/pontiff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dabacon.org\/pontiff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dabacon.org\/pontiff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dabacon.org\/pontiff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dabacon.org\/pontiff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dabacon.org\/pontiff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11801\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dabacon.org\/pontiff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dabacon.org\/pontiff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dabacon.org\/pontiff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}