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moment that makes it all worth it.
Will you have the same satisfaction in
20 or 30 years after teaching
hundreds of students? How can you
keep the spark of excitement in years
to come?
I don't know about the future, but so
far I feel the same excitement that I
felt in the beginning of my PhD.
When’s there a new idea, I tremble
with excitement. I enjoy collaborating
with and teaching students. It doesn’t
seem like it’s going to go away.
You seem very upbeat. What advice
can you give to people whose papers
were rejected or to those who are still
waiting to have their papers
accepted?
I feel that good research is always
going to find a way to get published to
become visible to people. If you really
believe that you are doing something
great, who cares about what a bunch
of reviewers say? Maybe there is noise
in the process. Maybe your paper
actually isn’t ready. Sometimes you
need to agree with the reviews and
make your paper better for next time
based on their feedback. Next time it is
going to be ever better! The key is to
stay upbeat. You should not taking it
personally. You need to believe in
yourself. Don’t get depressed from
reading the reviews. Sometimes you
get reviews which can get pretty nasty.
This happens, but you need to
remember why you still believe in your
work. You can also learn something
from the process.
Some people get stressed.
I guess for the first paper. For me, it’s
not stress, but it’s more about feeling
super curiosity about what will happen
and feeling excited. You should not be
stressed.
You have had a high percentage of
papers accepted by the conferences.
How does it feel to see you work
succeed?
I always wait to submit papers until
they are ready. Then you have a higher
chance of it being accepted. Although
then it can put pressure on yourself for
the future. You can’t always compete
with your past achievements. If you did
really well this year, you might want to
do even better the next year. It can
cause stress.
Are you more competitive with
yourself or with others?
I am definitely more competitive with
myself.
I
wouldn't call
myself
competitive. I just really love what I do.
My passion comes from a place of
curiosity.
14
TuesdaySanja Fidler
“
I just really love what I do.
My passion comes from a
place of curiosity
”
After the CVPR oral (given by Lluis
Castrejon on the left), which got the best
paper honorable mention. On the right
are Kaustav Kundu and Raquel Urtasun