Careers in Machine Learning, Python Music, and AI’s Brain Connection
Can a few minutes of reading make a difference in your life? We certainly believe so: when we read we learn, we open ourselves up to inspiration, and we connect with other people’s experiences. Don’t believe us? Head straight to Eugene Yan’s invigorating Q&A with Chip Huyen, where Chip shares too many valuable insights to count (about machine learning and getting into Stanford, yes—but also about setting goals and finding community through writing). You don’t want to miss it.
This week’s must-reads
Many a data scientist has started out thinking that a machine learning career revolves around mastery and expertise. There’s that, of course, but it’s rarely enough without a generous dose of so-called “soft” skills. Where to begin? Matt Sosna explains what business and interpersonal skills you might want to focus on to give your performance a boost.
Of course, networking and business acumen will only get you so far if you can’t produce valuable work, which itself often relies on highly specialized knowledge. “Specialized,” though, shouldn’t mean “hermetic and full of jargon.” We love posts that not only showcase the incredible breadth of talent in our community, but also communicate their authors’ skills with clarity and empathy. Posts like…
- A tutorial on building a cloud-based image-captioning model (thanks, Amanda Wong!)
- Katie He’s introduction to making and analyzing music in Python
- A study of COVID-19-related tweets (with numerous visualizations, all by Sejal Dua)
- Alexandra Souly’s guide to writing code using the SOLID design framework
…among many others.
In case all the hands-on reads leave you in the mood for taking a big step back, we’ve got you covered. Sit back with your snack of choice and treat yourself to Mark Saroufim’s thought-provoking polemic on the current state of machine learning, including an unflinching look at the parts of the field that no longer feel vibrant.
In case you missed it: the latest from the TDS team
Our recent Author Spotlight featured Julia Nikulski—currently finishing her master’s degree in Germany, Julia shares insights and tips from the journey that took her from financial analyst to data scientist. She stresses the importance of finding the right learning rhythm, and balancing ambitious goals with realistic expectations. Why start your career switch already burnt out?
On the TDS Podcast, meanwhile, host Jeremie Harris engaged multidisciplinary researcher Georg Northoff in a conversation that touched on one of the most essential questions people have asked themselves for millennia: what is human consciousness? With recent advances in AI, Northoff—who works at the intersection of philosophy, psychiatry, and neuroscience—hopes we can finally begin to understand how brains function and learn.
While we might be far from unlocking the mysteries of human consciousness, we are quite aware of some of our basic emotions. One of these is gratitude, which we never cease to feel towards you, our readers. Thank you for your support—it makes our work and this community possible.
Until the next Variable,
TDS Editors
Recent additions to our curated topics:
Getting Started
- Introduction to Bootstrapping in Data Science — part 1 by Alejandro Rodríguez
- Why Have a Data Science Portfolio and What It Shows by Eugene Yan
- How I’m Overcoming My Fear of Math to Learn Data Science by Madison Hunter
Hands-On Tutorials
- The ABCs of Approximate Bayesian Computation by Tom Leyshon
- Tree-Boosting for Spatial Data by Fabio Sigrist
- Developing an AI-based Android App for Image Annotation by Sofya Lipnitskaya
Deep Dives
- Audio Deep Learning Made Simple: Sound Classification, Step-by-Step by Ketan Doshi
- Gaussian Process Regression From First Principles by Ryan Sander
- Deep Image Quality Assessment by Aliaksei Mikhailiuk
