August 26, 2013
Future proof your learning algorithms
Andrew Ng's work in Deep Learning: Machine learning via Large-scale Brain Simulations is an inspiring direction for the field.
If you want long-term success, pick a learning algorithm that performs better with more data. That is a better choice than developing more complex models. The "long money" is on learning algorithms that best uses unlabeled data. There is far more unlabeled data than labeled data in the world.
August 24, 2013
Repost: The Future of Programming
I consistently discard old ways of thinking that no longer serve the person I want to be.
The most recent example is switching from MATLAB, to Python. MATLAB is a numerical analysis software that I badly bent into doing presentation and scripting. Python is an object object-oriented programming language designed to be flexible and scriptable. Even though I have more than 10 years of experience and all my programs in MATLAB, I switched to Python. The process was not without frustration and confusion (and cursing).
I realized that I needed to stop throwing good time and attention after bad time and attention.
The most recent example is switching from MATLAB, to Python. MATLAB is a numerical analysis software that I badly bent into doing presentation and scripting. Python is an object object-oriented programming language designed to be flexible and scriptable. Even though I have more than 10 years of experience and all my programs in MATLAB, I switched to Python. The process was not without frustration and confusion (and cursing).
I realized that I needed to stop throwing good time and attention after bad time and attention.
August 19, 2013
The current role of a teacher
Given the world’s knowledge is available to anyone with a computer and the internet, what is the role of a teacher?
Curator
The information avalanche in the world is poorly organized and unvetted. It is the role of a teacher to collect the best, beautiful, and most useful nuggets. Carefully selecting and ordering the materials so students learn the right thing at the right time is an art.
Given most material is created by experts, it suffers from the tyranny of knowledge problem. Experts focus too much on their specific silo, thus creating knowledge for themselves or their peers.
Condenser
Books are condensers. A great book is often a lifetime of experience and insights distilled into a few hundred pages. Teachers should do the same - concentrate a wealth of material available in the world. That happens at the course and class level.
Catalyst
A teacher should be an agent to both start and spend up learning. Some students don’t realize the importance of learning some material. Other students want to learn but don’t know where to start or where the path is.
Conduit
Teachers should model the love learning and knowledge. Show it is okay to have a passion and be a little nerdy.
Critic
There is a place for gentle push back on students. Teaching (especially with older students) is often replacing misunderstandings or incorrect thinking with better alternatives. Rarely does a teacher make the first marks on a tabula rasa.
A direct assault on deeply-held beliefs is rarely effective. After rapport is established, gentle nudging is a better method to get a mind thinking in a different way.
Creator
Lastly, there is creation in teaching. It could be ground-breaking pedagogy, more often it is simply synthesizing two different concepts.
Whatever the exact nature, the world is a better and more interesting place because of teaching.
Curator
The information avalanche in the world is poorly organized and unvetted. It is the role of a teacher to collect the best, beautiful, and most useful nuggets. Carefully selecting and ordering the materials so students learn the right thing at the right time is an art.
Given most material is created by experts, it suffers from the tyranny of knowledge problem. Experts focus too much on their specific silo, thus creating knowledge for themselves or their peers.
Condenser
Books are condensers. A great book is often a lifetime of experience and insights distilled into a few hundred pages. Teachers should do the same - concentrate a wealth of material available in the world. That happens at the course and class level.
Catalyst
A teacher should be an agent to both start and spend up learning. Some students don’t realize the importance of learning some material. Other students want to learn but don’t know where to start or where the path is.
Conduit
Teachers should model the love learning and knowledge. Show it is okay to have a passion and be a little nerdy.
Critic
There is a place for gentle push back on students. Teaching (especially with older students) is often replacing misunderstandings or incorrect thinking with better alternatives. Rarely does a teacher make the first marks on a tabula rasa.
A direct assault on deeply-held beliefs is rarely effective. After rapport is established, gentle nudging is a better method to get a mind thinking in a different way.
Creator
Lastly, there is creation in teaching. It could be ground-breaking pedagogy, more often it is simply synthesizing two different concepts.
Whatever the exact nature, the world is a better and more interesting place because of teaching.
August 12, 2013
The bad science of TED
I love TED talks but some of their science is terrible.
Mark Killingsworth claims to be a scientist but does not play by the rules of science.
I am giving him a scientific yellow card at 6:06. Where are the errors bars? Additionally, the truncated range of the Y-axis is misleading.
PS Despite his misleading visualization, his study is a great example of leveraging the power of the Internet to change the nature of psychology data collection.
August 5, 2013
Deciding to directly share
I have decided to directly share more of my work.
My resume and CV are the most frequently shared parts of my work. However, they are not The Work. They are information about my work. This is similar to Google, Facebook, or Wikipedia. Google is information about the web (not the web). Facebook is information about your friends (not your friends). Wikipedia is information about the world (not the world).
These abstractions are useful but there needs to be a directness to The Work.
My computer code can be found here. My presentation slides can be found here.
My resume and CV are the most frequently shared parts of my work. However, they are not The Work. They are information about my work. This is similar to Google, Facebook, or Wikipedia. Google is information about the web (not the web). Facebook is information about your friends (not your friends). Wikipedia is information about the world (not the world).
These abstractions are useful but there needs to be a directness to The Work.
My computer code can be found here. My presentation slides can be found here.
August 1, 2013
A cheat sheet for R
Following up to my cheat sheet for MATLAB, I made a cheat sheet for R.
It is a fun, quick start guide to a powerful programming language for statistics. (Yes, I used the words "fun," "quick," "programming language," and "statistics" in the same sentence).
It is a work in progress. I gave myself a constraint of 2 pages to make sure I shipped something sooner rather than later. There are many improvements to come (e.g., logical relationships, distributions, statistical tests, and plotting).
It is a fun, quick start guide to a powerful programming language for statistics. (Yes, I used the words "fun," "quick," "programming language," and "statistics" in the same sentence).
It is a work in progress. I gave myself a constraint of 2 pages to make sure I shipped something sooner rather than later. There are many improvements to come (e.g., logical relationships, distributions, statistical tests, and plotting).
Enjoy!
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