The data scientist is a brilliant person. He's an Israeli and a Harvard med school grad. Definitely harder to replace than I would have been. But he needs to back off on things that are outside his core competencies. To be fair, I could see myself making a similar mistake. Actively seeking out different perspectives can help, but that's not a guaranteed path to success either. Ultimately, the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away.

Fortunately, I was still technically a contact employee for my prior employer and they still wanted me back. They hadn't terminated me in their systems yet. It was like I went on vacation for a week and didn't log any hours.