How things change! This summer I taught a course in VLSI Design Automation. I can see now that some of the work I published in that area was done when I was incredibly depressed. That's not surprising. I published one paper in 2000 that I considered to be "a mere curiosity." However, upon rereading it while presenting it in class I realized it was the starting point for an astounding amount of new research. Why didn't I see that before?

Well, at the time I was battling to try and stay at the University of South Florida. Despite the fact that it was "clearly time to leave" I didn't want to displace my children from the only home they ever knew. Consequently I was battling on every front I could think of to fix the problems and so I could remain with USF. Needless to say, these efforts were pathetically ineffective. I couldn't see it at the time, but I was spiraling into an abyss of depression in which everything I did seemed trivial and pointless.

Reading this paper for the class jarred me back to reality. I decided to do a realistic review of my past work to determine other loose ends that might be dangling. There are quite a few, actually. I think a person could put together a pretty substantial research career tying up these loose ends. Even tying up a few of them could put someone on the map. Metamorphic programming, for example. One could devote an entire career to that concept alone.

I remember leaving South Florida with the feeling that I was finished as a researcher. That I would never have another original idea as long as I lived. The truth is that there is a vast landscape in front of me with virtually unlimited possibilities. What was I thinking?