Later Instagram and Twitter

For people who’ve asked where I’ve been lately on various social media, here’s a quick answer. My only public social platform right now is LinkedIn. In the last few weeks, I deleted my Instagram and Twitter accounts. This means I’m totally removed from those platforms. You won’t find me there. Similar to what I did … [Read more…]

The Path Of A Reluctant Data Scientist

I’m a self-described “reluctant data scientist”. Wait? Didn’t Harvard say that data scientist is the hottest job of the 21st century? Why would someone reluctantly claim title to the rockstar status, money, and glory that come along with being a data scientist? In my personal experience, there’s a big gap between data science hype and the … [Read more…]

The Point Of Struggle – Ai vs Balkanized Reality (Podcast)

In this episode of The Point Of Struggle, David Gonzalez and I riff on AI, ethics, and balkanized reality. Listen here The conversation ties to a post I wrote in March about leaving Facebook. Expect more conversations like this, since its a topic that I constantly think about. Speaking of which, a tweet this morning … [Read more…]

Your Company Probably Isn’t Ready For Data Science (And That’s OK!)

Your company wants to “do data science” ** or “become a data company”. These are definitely noble and well intentioned goals. Not trying to be negative, but I’m going to bet that your company probably isn’t ready for data science. And that’s perfectly OK. For the past several years, I’ve led data initiatives for companies … [Read more…]

When Your Mentor Dies, You Become The Mentor

Throughout my life, I’ve had some incredible mentors – iconoclasts and geniuses, rich and poor, all of whom took their time to teach me valuable lessons. I’m not sure what any of them saw in me at the time, but they all shaped who I am today. I am extremely grateful for their lessons. Yesterday … [Read more…]

2018 – Habits, Not Resolutions

Tomorrow is 2018. Many people will set New Year’s resolutions. Depending on the type of resolution, 80% of those with New Year’s resolutions will fail by mid-February. Most people fail because they don’t want to put in the hard work. It’s easier to coast along for the year. Then New Year’s rolls around, resolutions are made … [Read more…]

Weekend Reads – 12/16/2017

Non-Tech Motel Living and Slowly Dying. (LA Review Of Books) Coal Declining Due to Economics, Not Regulation. Natural gas up. Coal down. (Ritholz) Chamath Palihapitiya, Founder and CEO Social Capital, on Money as an Instrument of Change. I really enjoyed this talk with Chamath. He’s got a viewpoint and action-oriented mindset that really resonates with … [Read more…]

“AWS Cloud Is A Fad”

“AWS cloud is a fad”. At least that’s the gist of what I heard when a friend told me about somebody leaving a company due to a critical initiative to move IT and data resources to the cloud. The cloud happens to be on AWS. I sat there stunned for a moment, mostly because I … [Read more…]

SLC Python Talk – Code and Presentation Link

On Wednesday, 12/6/2017, I gave a talk at SLC Python to a standing room only audience. This was a record setting attendance for the SLC Python meetup. Apparently time series forecasting is a popular topic 😉 Here are the materials from my talk, posted on GitHub.