[funsec] Ed Felten: How I Became a Policy Wonk

[Fergie]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

I just read this piece by Ed Felten (Freedom to Tinker) that
I really, really relate to -- it somewhat describe an evolution
that many computer/network security folk make in the course of
their careers, I think.

[snip]

"When I started out in research, I had no idea public policy would become a
focus of my work. The switch wasn’t so much a conscious decision as a
gradual realization that events and curiosity had led me into a new area.
This kind of thing happens all the time in research: we stumble around
until we reach an interesting result and then, with the benefit of
hindsight, we construct a just-so story explaining why that result was
natural and inevitable. If the result is really good, then the just-so
story is right, in a sense — it justifies the result and it explains how
we would have gotten there if only we hadn’t been so clueless at the
start."

"My just-so story has me figuring out three things. (1) Policy is deep and
interesting. (2) Policy affects me directly. (3) Policy and computer
security are deeply connected."

[snip]

More:
http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/?p=1133

- - ferg


-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: PGP Desktop 9.5.3 (Build 5003)

wj8DBQFF8a04q1pz9mNUZTMRAgwUAJ4mwhjZnnNpzqzbnc2+m6L6Mz1opgCeOR21
r7NhYAXwoP77Nh0svpYZoWY=
=ZnKg
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

--
"Fergie", a.k.a. Paul Ferguson
 Engineering Architecture for the Internet
 fergdawg(at)netzero.net
 ferg's tech blog: http://fergdawg.blogspot.com/