In recent weeks, I've received several messages from folks struggling to get callbacks for Data Scientist interviews. In reviewing their résumés, I realized there are five specific tips that I highly recommend adhering to.
You can listen or watch here.
Filtering by Category: Professional Development
The Derivative of a Constant
This and the next several videos will provide you with clear and colorful examples of all of the most important differentiation rules. We kick these rules off with the Constant Rule.
The derivative rules are critical to machine learning as they allow us to find the derivatives of cost functions. These cost-function derivatives are concatenated into the "gradient" that we descend to allow ML models to learn.
New videos are published every Monday and Thursday. The playlist for my "Calculus for ML" course is here.
More detail about my broader "ML Foundations" series and all of the associated open-source code is available in GitHub here.
Derivative Notation
In today's YouTube video, we detail all of the most common notation for derivatives. This lays the foundation for a fun, immediately forthcoming series of videos covering all of the major differentiation rules. Enjoy!
New videos are published every Monday and Thursday. The playlist for my "Calculus for ML" course is here.
More detail about my broader "ML Foundations" series and all of the associated open-source code is available in GitHub here.
How Derivatives Arise from Limits
In today's video, we use hands-on code demos in Python to find the slopes of curves with the Delta Method. While finding these slopes, we derive together — from first principles — the most important Differential Calculus formula.
This video is part of a thematic segment of videos on Differentiation. In the forthcoming videos, we’ll cover derivative notation and a series of useful rules for differentiation.
New videos are published every Monday and Thursday. The playlist for my "Calculus for ML" course is here.
More detail about my broader "ML Foundations" series and all of the associated open-source code is available in GitHub here.
How to Thrive as an Early-Career Data Scientist
Getting started in data science? Today's episode is for you! Sidney Arcidiacono is absolutely crushing her first year in the field; we discuss the options for getting started in the field and top tips for early-career success.
Trained as a phlebotomist (blood-sample collection), Sidney was inspired by the potential for machine learning to revolutionize healthcare, so she jumped feet first into a full-time computer science degree at Make School, specializing in the data science track. From no familiarity with code or models just a year ago, Sidney's immersion has paid off: She's now fluent in the modern data science software stack and landed a summer data science internship at GreenLight Biosciences, Inc., an RNA-molecule therapeutics firm (like the Pfizer/BioNTech/Moderna vaccines).
Sidney is terrifically sharp and engaging; I think you'll enjoy hearing from her as much as I did during filming.
Watch or listen here.
The Delta Method
In today's video, we use a Python code demo to develop a working understanding of the Delta Method, a centuries-old technique that enables us to determine the slope of a curve.
This video is the first from a thematic segment of videos on Differentiation. In Thursday's video, we'll build on what we covered today to derive — and deeply understand — the most common, most important equation in differential calculus.
New videos are published every Monday and Thursday. The playlist for my "Calculus for ML" course is here.
More detail about my broader "ML Foundations" series and all of the associated open-source code is available in GitHub here.
Peer-Driven Learning
"Peer-driven" learning — where you are formally taught by your coworkers — not only results in team members learning key new skills, but can have added benefits like team bonding, confidence, and innovation. Something to try!
Today's episode is directly inspired by a LinkedIn post by Laura Rodriguez. She tagged me in the post, citing a SuperDataScience episode on communication and relating it to her workplace at ForwardKeys. Thank you, Laura!
The 20% of Analytics Driving 80% of ROI
Today’s episode is with freakin' David Langer, people!! (So obviously it's brilliant, witty, and full of laughs.) He fills us in on the most powerful 20% of analytics — the analytics that drive 80% of companies’ return on investment.
Publishing under his Dave on Data brand, Dave's YouTube channel is top-notch, with several videos that have over a million views (and the thumbnails are hilarious; check 'em out). He is an exceptionally accomplished data scientist and software engineer, including spending nearly a decade at Microsoft's Global HQ, where his titles included principal software architect, principal data scientist, and director of analytics.
Topics in the episode include:
Surprisingly powerful modeling approaches in spreadsheet tools like Excel
The SQL databases we'll need if the data sets we're working with are too big for spreadsheets
Why R programming is easy and should be our default language choice for moderate to advanced statistical analysis
How companies can maximize value from machine learning
Listen or watch here.
Exercises on Limits
Final YouTube video from my thematic segment on Limits out today! It's a handful of comprehension exercises. Starting Thursday, we'll begin releasing videos from a new Calculus segment, on derivatives and differentiation.
We release new videos from my "Calculus for Machine Learning" course on YouTube every Monday and Thursday. The playlist is here.
The Machine Learning House
In last week’s Five-Minute Friday, I discussed how, in the data science field, the learning never stops. But there’s one big counterpoint: The foundational subjects that underlie the field barely change at all, decade after decade.
These subjects — linear algebra, calculus, probability, statistics, data structures, and algorithms — build a strong foundation for your “Machine Learning House”. Today's Five-Minute Friday articulates my perspective that investing time in studying these foundational subjects will reap great dividends throughout your data science career.
You can listen or watch here.
Calculating Limits
Today's video introduces Limits, a key stepping stone toward understanding Differential Calculus. This one has lots of interactive Python code demos and paper-and-pencil exercises to ensure learning the subject is both engaging and fun.
We release new videos from my "Calculus for Machine Learning" course on YouTube every Monday and Thursday. The playlist is here.
Machine Learning at NVIDIA
This week's guest is absolute rockstar Dr. Anima Anandkumar, who's both professor at prestigious Caltech and director of ML research at NVIDIA. The episode is exceptionally content-rich but also lots of fun; Anima was a joy to film with.
In the episode, Anima fills us in on:
The cutting-edge interdisciplinary research she carries out (applying highly optimized mathematical operations to allow state-of-the-art ML models to be executed on NVIDIA's state-of-the-art GPUs)
How this blending of leading software and leading hardware enables world-changing innovations across disparate fields, from healthcare to robotics
What it's like in the workweek of a researcher bridging the academic and industrial realms
The open-source data science tools and techniques that she most highly recommends
Listen or watch here.
Calculus Applications
New YouTube video out today! In this one, I provide specific examples of how calculus is applied in the real world, with an emphasis on applications to machine learning.
The YouTube playlist for my "Calculus for Machine Learning" course is here.
Calculus of the Infinitesimals
New YouTube video up! In today's we use a hands-on code demo in Python to see how approaching a curve infinitely closely enables us to determine the slope of the curve. This is key to formally understanding differential calculus.
The YouTube playlist for my "Calculus for Machine Learning" course is here.
99 Days to Your First Data Science Job
He's BAAAAACK! Kirill Eremenko is the GUEST on the SuperDataScience show for the first time. In this episode, he details his exceptional new learning pathway that enables folks to land their first data science job in 99 days.
We also cover:
• What Kirill's been up to; life philosophies he's honed
• 5 myths holding people back from starting a data science career
• 5 items you need to land a data science job
Kirill created the SuperDataScience podcast in 2016 and hosted the program (over 400 episodes!) until passing the torch to yours truly on January 1st.
Kirill also founded the SuperDataScience company and is the firm’s CEO today. SuperDataScience.com, the namesake of this podcast, is a comprehensive online education platform for data science and related data specializations. Through SuperDataScience.com and his Udemy courses, Kirill has taught well over a million students worldwide, launching countless data science careers.
You can listen or watch here.
The Method of Exhaustion
New video up on YouTube today, covering a centuries-old calculus technique called the Method of Exhaustion. The technique is still relevant today as a stepping stone to understanding how modern calculus works.
The YouTube playlist for my "Calculus for Machine Learning" course is here.
Intro to Integral Calculus
Today’s video is a quick intro to Integral Calculus, the other branch of the mathematical field alongside Differential Calculus (which was introduced in the preceding video, released on Monday).
The YouTube playlist for my "Calculus for Machine Learning" course is here.
Learning Deep Learning Together
I'm joined today by Prof. Konrad Körding of the University of Pennsylvania, a world-leading researcher on links between biological neuroscience and A.I. He also leads Neuromatch Academy, a super cool group-based deep learning school.
Neuromatch is an innovative, hands-on program for learning deep learning that matches students with similar interests, languages, and time zones into tight-knit study teams. This matching approach is wildly successful, with 86% of students completing the program, compared to a 10% industry average.
In the first half of the episode, we go over the details of the Neuromatch curriculum, providing you with a survey of all of the state-of-the-art deep learning approaches. The second half is a mind-blowing exploration of the limits of artificial neural networks today and how incorporating more biological neuroscience may enable machines to develop artificial general intelligence (AGI) — i.e., machines that learn as well as humans do.
Listen or watch here.
New Series: Calculus for Machine Learning! Plus a New Video Schedule
With all of the Linear Algebra of my Machine Learning Foundations series already available on YouTube, it's time for a new subject: Calculus! The first Calculus video — an intro to the subject — is live today!
Up until now, I've been releasing my YouTube videos in thematic blocks, however I'm going to try something new now to set clearer delivery-timeline expectations with you. Starting with this video, I'll release a new YouTube video every Monday and every Thursday.
My Calculus for ML YouTube playlist is here. The series is full of hands-on demos in Python (particularly the NumPy, TensorFlow, and PyTorch libraries) and all of the code is available open-source in GitHub.
The first quarter of the series covered Linear Algebra. We're now kicking off the second quarter, on Calculus. The third quarter will be on Probability and Statistics. The final one will be on Computer Science (Data Structures, Algorithms, and Optimization).
High-Impact Data Science Made Easy
Today, the wise Noah Gift weighs pros and cons of data science learning options (university degrees vs online certifications; full-time vs on-the-job) as well as how MLOps can quickly make you exponentially more impactful.
Noah has worked in countless technical leadership roles. He held the roles at companies ranging from tech start-ups he founded to prominent institutions like ABC, Caltech, and AT&T. Today, Noah’s founder of a consultancy called Pragmatic AI Labs — and he devises and teaches data science curricula at several of the most prestigious American universities, including Duke, Northwestern, and Berkeley. He has written eight books, including the bestselling Python for DevOps and the forthcoming Practical MLOps.
On top of all that incredible background, Noah has rich, well-formed life philosophies, which we dig into into detail. I learned a ton from him during this episode, and have been thinking about concepts we discussed time and again since filming. I highly recommend checking the episode out!
You can listen or watch here.