2 min read

#8: Keeping Up With The Joneses

Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.

Machine learning also moves pretty fast. The short blog How to Keep Up in a Changing Field by Eugene Yan has promising approaches you can use to keep your skills sharp. Other fields in software engineering also change frequently, especially frontend development. I think you will find these approaches practical if you work as a software engineer. I like the "sharing your experiences" one from the listed methods. There are many ways to share what you have learned. My favorite one is writing about it.

Other than the listed approaches, my favorite way to keep up with the new ML research is organizing study sessions in my team. The best thing about it is that I don't have to use my personal time. Wherever you work, I would guess that your teammates are also interested in learning about the recent developments in your field. So, organize a weekly study session in your team. You and your teammates can share something new in a round-robin fashion.


International Developers In Japan 2021 Survey

In November 2021, Paul, the author of TokyoDev, surveyed international software engineers living in Japan. And the results were published last week. Three insights I found interesting:

  • 5% of international developers in Japan work on data science/ML, and 35% use python.
  • JavaScript is the most common language used by 53%.
  • 68% are already working entirely remotely.

Becoming a Better Writer in Tech

Gergely keeps writing one great article after another. Honestly, I'm so jealous of him right now. But also so grateful that I get to read such well-written blogs which are immediately actionable. The latest hit is about Becoming a Better Writer in Tech. I found it very useful since I am already trying to develop my writing habit. If you are in a software engineer or tech leadership role, trust me and just read it.


Last Week, Next Week

Last week, I watched the 1992 film Glengarry Glen Ross - you know the one with the famous always be closing scene with Alec Baldwin. I loved how the movie heavily relied on dialogues. Al Pacino completely stole the show in the second half. Overall a perfect 5/7 movie.
At work, I had some fun building a Dash app that helps visualize some metrics I want to improve with ML.
Next week I'm looking forward to two main events. I will be speaking at Mercari ML & Search Talk #2: Customer Understanding about leveraging AI in customer support operations at Mercari. For my podcast, I have a recording session with Iqbal Abdullah, founder of LaLoka Labs and Xoxzo Inc.


Cheers! Have a productive day.
Prashant Anand (@primaprashant)