Thank you!

On Thursday, September 6, I gave a talk at the Universidad Tecnológica Metropolitana to the students of the Civil Engineering in Computer Science program. The talk is called “Creators of Universes”.

The talk was motivational in nature, and reflects several of the ideas laid out in earlier posts, in particular these three articles. One of the things I liked most about the content of the talk is that I talk about my team, those wonderful people who work with me at my job, of whom I am proud, and about the way they contribute to fulfilling our vision of service.

My team’s work has a positive impact on the lives of millions of Chileans. What we do doesn’t get much public exposure, there are no glamorous websites for you to visit, and you won’t hear much about our processes on television or in the media either. At most, when some minister (of any government) announces a new benefit for the population, you could presume that we will probably be working to make it happen. That’s why I am proud of my team, because they are very aware of how important it is that they do things well, and they do their best to that end. That’s why I am grateful to them, and that’s why I included them and talked a lot about them in that talk.

The other thing I liked about this talk was the reception from the young people. They were very kind, and I noticed a lot of interest. They laughed quite a bit, and for a guy as dull as I am that means a lot; I think I got their attention. I want to thank Sebastián Salazar, who invited me, and the kids from the student union, as well as Mauro Castillo, Director of the School of Computer Science, and Sara Rojas, faculty members who were present (I hope I didn’t step on too many toes :wink: ).

This talk was my way of closing out the seventh anniversary of this blog, which was very good, thanks to the participation of this year’s “guest villains”, whom I take the chance to thank: Daniel Molina Wegener, Alejandro Barros, Álvaro Graves, Marcos Malamud, Aldrin Martoq, Franco Catrin and the great Cadaunante Enzo Abbagliati.

Many thanks to everyone, above all to my family and my wife, who know how important this blog is to me, for their support and patience.

I’m leaving you the slides, but it’s more fun when we share it live, so if anyone is up for it we can organize a talk at some other point in space-time: