Wow, Deeply Supervised Nets received the Test of Time award at @aistats_conf 2025! It was the very first paper I submitted during my PhD. Fun fact: the paper was originally rejected by NeurIPS with scores of 8/8/7 (yes, that pain stuck with me... maybe now I can finally let it go😅). I wouldn’t call conferences a lottery, but a bit of perseverance does go a long way. Students: if you're feeling disheartened after recent paper decisions and gearing up for the next one, I hope this is a small reminder to keep going.