Not a Data-Science Post — A Love Poem
How can we be so fortunate to work in a business like this?
New things turn up all the time. How can we be so fortunate
to work in a business like this? It has been and continues to be
a very exciting life and I feel so deeply privileged to have been
able to share it with so many fine, intelligent, and unbelievably
enjoyable colleagues both in this country and around the world.
To all of you, only a few of whom I have found ways to mention
here, I say a heartfelt “Thank you!” and “Let there be more”.
Link
Today, the world lost a great man and a great scientist…
We are using technology to go back to the roots of personalization. Can the poison be the antidote?
“Do you want the usual?”
Before the age of optimization and big companies gobbling up small local businesses, you would have enjoyed going to your favorite local coffee shop, bodega, bookstore, or bakery. You would have had a positive interaction in the form of a small meaningful interaction (i.e. How are the kids doing?). These positive interactions had a way of elevating our mood by helping us feel loved throughout the day and feel that we are indeed part of a community (and somewhat important enough that people care about us.)
Over time, the consolidation of smaller businesses morphed into big enterprises and constant obsessions…
Audiobooks are a great way to expand your brain’s channel capacity or to just sit back, relax, and enjoy. I listened to some great stories, comedies, and management books. These are my suggestions:
The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
The Rosie Project is the first book of a three-book series. I fell in love with the series in just 30 minutes! My wife recommended it to me. We listened to it together and shared many laughs through this comedic, yet heartfelt, story! The Audiobook’s narrator talks with a matter-of-fact Australian accent that matches the rigid, socially-aloof main character perfectly! It’s not your typical romantic comedy. It’s more than that because it enlightened my views in terms of mental health and understanding people who are on the autism spectrum. The other two books in the series are great as well…
From the Book: The U.S. Constitution; Explained Clause by Clause for Every American today!
The following answers the question: Is the United States of America a democracy or a republic based on the first amendment? :)
One argued, “Under a democracy, whose great end is to form a code of laws congenial with the public sentiment, the popular opinion ought to be collected and attended to. Our Government is derived from the people, of consequence, the people have a right to consult for the common good.”
A congressman on the other side responded: “Representation is the principle of our Government; the people ought to have confidence in the honor and integrity of those they…
A five minute read that can save you a lot of time and trouble in landing your first data science job.
With all the gloom in academia (lack of funding, mental health risk, scarcity of bountiful academic careers), and all the buzz around Data Science many Ph.D.’s consider Data Science as an alternative career path. If you want to avoid some of the common pitfalls spend the next 5 minutes reading this.
You can listen to my interview with Cheeky Scientist Radio on my journey to Data Science. I wrote this about four years ago and it still rings true in the current climate.
Is Data Science For Me? DON’T DO IT IF…
- You don’t like mathematics or have a good foundation in linear algebra and multivariate calculus? If this…
Management, Physics, Politics, Healthcare, and Fiction. In 2020, the following books have helped me to progress in my career and life. Enjoy reading them!
2020 is finally over! In spite of its ups (getting married)and downs (contracting COVID19 and dealing with it for two months), overall it was a positive year for me. This year I got to read more non-data-science books in the domain of management, healthcare, and fiction. I think you can benefit from these books regardless of what you do and what level are you at.
If you don’t have time go to the TLDR section!
Management and Business:
Measure What Matters by John Doerr
This book is about how to be a good manager by setting up clear Objectives and Key Results across the organization and cascade them downward…
Data imbalance problem or class imbalance problem occurs when an overwhelming majority of your data belong to one class (majority class) and you have very few samples for your minority class.
You don’t really have data imbalance problem if:
- You are not really interested in, correctly classifying the minority class (rarely happens!).
- You have a huge training dataset that even though your class sample ratio is very imbalanced, you still have a lot of samples in your minority class.
Accuracy is not your best choice
Is the US really doing worse than EU or is it just politics and media?
Hypes are the biggest enemy of logic, especially if there are tied to our personal beliefs around an independent but correlated event.
In recent days, I have seen many news articles and memes around how the US is failing to flatten the curve in comparison to other European and Asian countries. The situation is exacerbated by the new surge in the number of cases in sun-belt states. …
CEOs and Data Teams have a shared responsibility to protect companies and data science jobs.
Even if the COVID19 pandemic had not hit the economy hard, we were moving towards the deleveraging state of the debt cycle. COVID19 only accelerated the process and disproportionately affected some industries. Overleveraged companies that did not act fast went under and had to file for bankruptcy.
All of these resulted in many losing their jobs or having their offers pulled back. Data Scientists were not an exception. The fact that in many companies and industries (including many of the top technology companies such as Uber and Lyft) data scientists got hit hard. …
Shobeir Mazinani
Experienced data scientist, problem solver, ex-quantum physics guy.
