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Spotting Misinformation in “Studies Have Shown”
Reading Time: 13 minutes In July, Bloomberg promoted an article on Twitter: “Drinking more than a small shot glass of beer a day could pose risks to health for men under the age of 40, a new study...
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“Best Practice” is not a reason to do something
Reading Time: 8 minutes A programmer on your team makes a technical decision. Maybe it’s in a ticket they’re working on, or maybe they make a change without buy-in. Now we’re in retro, a pairing...
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The Siren Song of the ‘User’ Model
Reading Time: 9 minutes The other day, a podcast host asked me if I have any rants on my mind. One thing sprang up. I didn’t address it in the interview because I don’t trust myself to speak...
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What Pride Means to Me in Practice
Reading Time: 16 minutes Today I’m taking a break from talking about the Raft distributed consensus algorithm, compiler design, or the inclusion rubric. Instead, I want to talk about what pride means...
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Quantitative Programming Knife Skills, Part 2
Reading Time: 8 minutes Researchers, data engineers, data scientists, and machine learning engineers all need the ability to interpret data and draw conclusions from it. But even academic papers often...
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Data Safety: The “Knife Skills” of Quantitative Programming
Reading Time: 10 minutes I teach programming classes, and I send each new student body a survey before class begins. The survey asks questions like “What are you hoping to get out of this class?” (Fun...
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Lessons from Space: Edge Free Programming
Reading Time: 12 minutesI’m writing this blog series about what software engineers can learn from spaceflight. You can check out all the posts in the space series (as well as some other space-related...
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Analyzing Relationships Between ESG Data and Stock Performance, Part 3
Reading Time: 40 minutes Back in Part 1 of this exploration, we talked about including our values in investment decisions. Corporations listen to our money more than they listen to us, so can we vote...
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Analyzing Relationships Between ESG Data and Stock Performance, Part 2
Reading Time: 2 minutesBack in Part 1 of this exploration, we talked about including our values in investment decisions. Corporations listen to our money more than they listen to us, so can we vote...
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Analyzing Relationships between ESG Data and Stock Performance, Part 1
Reading Time: 4 minutesIn case you haven’t heard, millenials are killing everything from diamonds to department stores to designer crap to grocery chains. Why? Sure, the recession had an impact. But...
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Tips for Building on Graph Databases (Neo4j)
Reading Time: 5 minutesI’ve been working on a graph database app with data ported from a relational database. There’s plenty online to help you decide if a graph database is right for your project, but...
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One-Page Notes: Weapons of Math Destruction, by Cathy O’Neil
Reading Time: 4 minutesFolks ask me about the dangers of trusting computer-generated algorithms and artificial intelligence. The conversation usually brings up a future scenario in which the machines...
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Diagramming Data, Part 3: Preventing and Curing Data Deficiencies
Reading Time: 4 minutesIn part 1 of this series, we discussed the relationship between data and code complexity. In part 2, we talked about some of the deficiencies datasets might have and how they...
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Diagramming Data, Part 2: Reversible and Irreversible Data Issues
Reading Time: 5 minutesIn Part 1 of Diagramming Data, I talked about the relationship between code simplicity and the underlying data. I touched on some of the issues that organizations face with their...
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Diagramming Data, Part 1: Simple Code Depends on Nice Data
Reading Time: 4 minutesI came across an article on Firstround called ‘Forget Tech Debt…Here’s How to Build Technical Wealth.’ Andrea Goulet introduces us to some of the practices her consultancy uses...
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