I would not let the author's tongue-in-cheek title discourage you from reading what is a very widely respected, well-received book :). Unless the rest of the books on your list are exclusively about motorcycle repair, in which case... still consider giving it a read.
Especially if you have Python experience, then yes the opportunity definitely exists.
For example when I hire MLEs (which I am doing now if anyone wants to apply - supportlogic.io) I am willing to look at people who are solid Python/backend engineers and who have been "ML adjacent" or who we believe could learn the ropes of ML enough to contribute. The stronger an engineer, the more flexibility we have in ML knowledge. Some ML engineering is task-specific but a lot of it is automation, data engineering, and improving data scientist code (for which you do need ML experience
I've found it's a lot easier to teach an engineer enough DS/ML fundamentals to do ML Engineering than it is to teach a data scientist engineering skills. A lot easier...
Interesting. Honestly to me Python and backend engineer are effectively orthogonal skillsets though. I would expect any decent programmer to pick up Python in about a week... (slight exaggeration but you get the point).
Assuming you looked at or seriously considered the i3 - in what way(s) was it 'not good enough' for you to stick to your favorite brand?
I'm not a big BMW person but I always liked the i3. I never got that close to buying one so I'm open to the idea there's some big catch or drawback I just didn't look closely enough to see.
Great question! I actually test drove one on a lark ~2 years before buying the Model 3. At the time, Model S aside, I basically pictured electric cars as economy cars. As in, why on earth would you pay $40-$45k for a BMW commuter appliance EV instead of $30k (or whatever) for a Leaf? Once I drove it, I got it. It was a legitimately nice car inside; it clicked. "Right, for the same reason people pay more for premium cars that are powered by internal combustion motors!"
I had to take it seriously because around the time we got the 3, PG&E was offering something like $10k in rebates on the i3 on top of state+federal credits. I never got serious about pricing, but to me that suggested that I could have a new i3 for $22.5k, or less than half the price of of a Model 3!
The reality is that the i3 serves an entirely different market. Yes, our Tesla sees 99% commuting miles, but when buying a "nice, new" car (which is novel to me), it kind of needs to be able to do it all. I found the Range Extender solution on the i3 to be pretty janky, and I don't remotely trust DCFC networks that are not-Tesla. This might be FUD; after all, non-Tesla DCFC was probably better in 2018 when I bought my car than Superchargers were in (say) 2015, but it's useful FUD. The range on the i3 is simply too short. You can't really take it anywhere, and I want my nice new car to be able to take me to the mountains, to see my family 500 miles away, etc.
Now, of course, for the money savings, there's the usual "well, rent a car for the 2 times a year you take a long roadtrip", and that's probably the rational solution, but I don't really feel that buying a car is entirely rational; I think it's largely emotional, and people construct post-hoc justifications for why buying the car they WANTED was the CORRECT choice.
I ended up selling a nice roadtrippable car for about $30k when we bought the Tesla, which means if we had bought the i3 I'd have kept the other car, and it would have been a more expensive proposition overall, to own a less capable EV.
Then, later, I bought a diesel SUV that's very nice for roadtrips so I guess the Tesla doesn't have to do it all, but, hey, like I said, it's not all rational.
Oh, and the i3-- it drove REALLY well. I was super impressed by the power and handling. I couldn't believe the grip on such narrow tires. I loved the interior, although the exterior was a bit of a mixed bag for me. We'd have to charge it every single night for commuting, where we charge the Tesla every 3 days or so, but honestly that's not such a drag, it would be more of an issue on days where you want to cover a lot of miles in one day. (lots of errands on a weekend day for example).
> My argument was based on the premise that votes from power users are more valuable as they better at judging the quality of the content.
As someone responsible for designing and incorporating end-user activity/feedback into ML, I have to tell you this is exceedingly unlikely.
The number of power users, especially on a large consumer app like Spotify, is dwarfed by the broad userbase (I estimate ~1% of Spotify users at most qualify as "power users").
Would I rather have power user-only feedback, or 100x the feedback? Definitely definitely 100x the feedback from all users.
Really enjoyed this post and explanation, thank you! I work in ML and used to live on Alma St in Palo Alto so it really hit home for me :).
I also acutely enjoy the notion that a pithy critique of people who refused to simplify the problem they were solving is in itself grossly oversimplified!
You can hire developers/engineers anywhere but it's hard(er) to find leadership and/or VC connections elsewhere.
I moved from the Bay to Raleigh, NC. If I wanted to start a B2B AI SaaS company here, I could (probably) find dozens of good engineers locally to help me do that. If I want to hire a VPE who's "been there done that" and scaled a B2B SaaS engineering org to 200+ engineers, or 1,000+ customers, or $30M+ revenue... my options are going to be significantly more limited here than SF/SV.
I am actively interviewing someone with 4 years and someone with 20 years of experience for the same role. Our needs are quite specific but it is not our first or last hire in that area; as long as someone can fill them we are willing to be flexible about to what extent this particular hire fills our overall need and will adjust accordingly down the line.
Given the stage of my company, our hiring plan, and the fact we hire remote across the US, we absolutely could have a role with a salary range of $80k or more.
Ahhh hello fellow Illini. I didn't mind the long bus rides too much, but I was ~20 and probably hungover most if not every time. Not something I'd rely on as a functioning adult, that's for sure :).
About Waymo: I used to think they were a leader in this space, partly based on their published safety statistics, but I am no longer so sure.
I had the great fortune of living in "Old Palo Alto" (think "mega rich tech CEO paradise") for a year while my wife was at Stanford. This is a grid of low-traffic, low-speed, sidewalked residential streets, ~10 minutes on all sides from the nearest highway, with typical mid-Peninsula weather (in other words, essentially perfect driving conditions).
I would would frequently see Waymo vehicles going all through the neighborhood at 6-9AM on Sunday mornings when I was out on long runs. They would often be essentially the only cars I saw on the road.
If there is a better way to pad your urban safety statistics, I do not know of one.
