As an anecdata point, it seems probable that I would not write the essay about the learning-theoretic research agenda without the prize, or at least, it would be significantly delayed. This is because I am usually reluctant to publish anything that doesn’t contain non-trivial theorems, but it felt like for this prize it would be suitable (this preference is partially for objective reasons, but partially it is for entirely subjective motivation issues). In hindsight, I think that spending the time to write that essay was the right decision regardless of the prize.
As an anecdata point, it seems probable that I would not write the essay about the learning-theoretic research agenda without the prize, or at least, it would be significantly delayed. This is because I am usually reluctant to publish anything that doesn’t contain non-trivial theorems, but it felt like for this prize it would be suitable (this preference is partially for objective reasons, but partially it is for entirely subjective motivation issues). In hindsight, I think that spending the time to write that essay was the right decision regardless of the prize.
As another anecdata point, I considered writing more to pursue the prize pool but ultimately didn’t do any more (counterfactual) work!