jrauser

7 ms·

1.
by jrauser 11mo ago
I never worked for google (interviewed but was rejected) but I have suspected this is true -- that there was a sweet spot where google was a magical place, but that time has long passed.
2.
by jrauser 11mo ago
One of the better decisions I ever made was not ignoring emails from folks recruiting for Amazon in 2003. It was a different place back then, and truly like "the world's largest startup." The other thing that was different
3.
by jrauser 3y ago
I wrote a talk entitled How Humans See Data that puts several of these ideas, among others, into a coherent framework based on research by Bill Cleveland. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSgEeI2Xpdc
4.
by jrauser 5y ago
Fair enough. I maybe should have put language in scare quotes. :)
5.
by jrauser 5y ago
In 1999, front end templates were written in an internally developed macro language named catsubst and served by a C (maybe C++?) application named Obidos. Later (starting in 2003-ish), front end code was written in Perl (Mason) and served
6.
by jrauser 6y ago
Your control is greatly reduced in aerobars, but more importantly, your ability to defend your space is hugely reduced, which makes riding in a pack extremely dangerous. This video explains why having the ability to protect your bars preve
7.
by jrauser 7y ago
I participated in the drafting of these tenets along with several others. Many years later, I'm pleased by how much I still like them.
8.
The Tenets of Amazon's Principal Engineers(amazon.jobs)
4 points by jrauser 7y ago|2 comments
9.
by jrauser 7y ago
I'm like this, but when I have too much caffeine I notice that it's harder to turn the monologue off. It becomes a little shouty in fact. Brains are weird.
10.
by jrauser 7y ago
You've got it more or less. The way I say it is that bad ideas can't hide in writing. You can fool yourself and others with a powerpoint or a spoken argument. But clear writing demands clear thinking. Poorly constructed argume
11.
by jrauser 7y ago
CLR
12.
by jrauser 7y ago
Starry Messenger - Galileo Very fun and readable. He's so excited to tell the world about what he's learned.
13.
by jrauser 7y ago
In practice I find prophet far superior. Prophet can deal deftly with the kind of problems that show up in real-world data like missing values and radical changes in trend from shocks to the system you're modeling. For textbook proble
14.
by jrauser 7y ago
Perhaps related to Sturgeon's law: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturgeon%27s_law
15.
by jrauser 7y ago
The specific anecdote may have been fabricated, but the principle is sound. An example is the marshmallow problem[1], where a group is given some materials and is asked to build, under time pressure, the tallest tower they can with a marsh
16.
by jrauser 7y ago
As a data scientist: What do you want to know about the thing you're building and how it works?
17.
by jrauser 8y ago
Keogh has produced a bunch of interesting work. Toward Parameter Free Data Mining is a gem: https://www.cs.ucr.edu/~eamonn/SIGKDD_2004_long.pdf Of course SAX is also super interesting: https://www.cs.ucr.e
18.
by jrauser 8y ago
Did you even read the headline? “Supplements won’t prevent dementia...” The first half of the article is all about various dietary supplements and how there is no good evidence for them. But there is decent evidence for exercise, controllin
19.
by jrauser 8y ago
Jeff talks a lot about this in his recent letter to shareholders. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1018724/000119312518... He suggests that a great memo takes a week or more. In my experience tha
20.
by jrauser 8y ago
Jeff's letters to shareholders are pretty good. Here's a recent one: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1018724/000119312518... Because of its audience and goals it's necessarily les
21.
by jrauser 8y ago
I agree completely. It's also important that the audience can actually tell the difference between good writing and poor writing and give useful feedback. You can't just ask people to write and hope for the best.
22.
by jrauser 8y ago
I've seen a couple companies try to adopt the Amazon-style narrative, and they both failed. I think the only way it can happen is if leadership demands it and is absolutely unrelenting. People will resist at first, but in time (years
23.
by jrauser 8y ago
To the contrary, clear writing make it much easier for the audience to assemble complex ideas. Poor writing definitely makes it harder, and it turns out that the vast majority of people are poor writers, mainly because they don't pract
24.
by jrauser 8y ago
I've written documents for Jeff, and IMO, the six-page narrative memo is a key part of Amazon's success. It's so easy to fool both yourself and your audience with an oral presentation or powerpoint slides. With narrative te
25.
by jrauser 8y ago
Constraining people via arbitrary norms is harmful. Putting people into tidy little boxes is harmful to those that don't neatly fit in their assigned box. The smartest HR person I ever worked with once told me "Your standardized
26.
by jrauser 8y ago
For scientific/technical talks specifically, a truly useful technique I learned from The Craft of Scientific Presentations[1] is the assertion-evidence slide. This type of slide has a complete sentence at the top that makes a substanti
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by jrauser 8y ago
I'm reminded of a time when my sister in law was upset with her daughter. The girl was supposed to have cleaned her bathroom but hadn't swept the floor. To make peace, I offered to help her finish the task. What I learned is th
28.
by jrauser 8y ago
FYI, if you like 3b1b's videos, you can support him on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/3blue1brown/posts
29.
by jrauser 8y ago
What if Facebook is exploiting the same weaknesses that cigarette companies or drug dealers or casinos do? Have you ever walked into a casino and seen truly sad people whiling away their time and money? Have you ever walked past a homeles
30.
by jrauser 8y ago
If you're interested in more about LambdaMOO, Julian Dibbell's My Tiny Life is a good read: https://www.amazon.com/My-Tiny-Life-Passion-Virtual/dp/08050...

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