When I interviewing last year, I was keen to move back to fintech. I wanted better context on problems in a specific domain, to match that against new capabilities technology now ‘unlocks’. The example that came to mind was Square helping vendors at farmers market to accept credit card payments, enabled by more accurate ML-based risk models.
Now I realize that domain doesn’t have to be fintech. It’s true, most of the exposure I’ve had has been in payments and lending. That being said, what’s important is being at the interface between the business domain and technology. The same principle, of understanding domain-specific pain points and how to alleviate that with more sophisticated tools, still applies.
Perhaps Justine Musk says this best.
Choose one thing and become a master of it. Choose a second thing and become a master of that. When you become a master of two worlds (say, engineering and business), you can bring them together in a way that will a) introduce hot ideas to each other, so they can have idea sex and make idea babies that no one has seen before and b) create a competitive advantage because you can move between worlds, speak both languages, connect the tribes, mash the elements to spark fresh creative insight until you wake up with the epiphany that changes your life.
I shared her post on the first blog entry of my first time at Recurse Center. It’s a nice way to come full circle.