Posts: ML systems, engineering, career.
SearchSome Intuition on Attention and the Transformer
What's the big deal, intuition on query-key-value vectors, multiple heads, multiple layers, and more.
21 May 2023 · 8 min · deeplearning nlp llm
Open-LLMs - A list of LLMs for Commercial Use
It started with a question that had no clear answer, and led to eight PRs from the community.
Interacting with LLMs with Minimal Chat
Should chat be the main UX for LLMs? I don't think so and believe we can do better.
More Design Patterns For Machine Learning Systems
9 patterns including HITL, hard mining, reframing, cascade, data flywheel, business rules layer, and more.
23 Apr 2023 · 20 min · machinelearning engineering production recsys
Experimenting with LLMs to Research, Reflect, and Plan
Also, shortcomings in document retrieval and how to overcome them with search & recsys techniques.
09 Apr 2023 · 14 min · llm deeplearning learning 🛠
LLM-powered Biographies
Asking LLMs to generate biographies to get a sense of how they memorize and regurgitate.
How to Write Data Labeling/Annotation Guidelines
Writing good instructions to achieve high precision and throughput.
12 Mar 2023 · 6 min · datascience machinelearning mechanism
Content Moderation & Fraud Detection - Patterns in Industry
Collecting ground truth, data augmentation, cascading heuristics and models, and more.
26 Feb 2023 · 16 min · teardown machinelearning production
Mechanisms for Effective Technical Teams
End of week debrief, weekly business review, monthly learning sessions, and quarter review.
05 Feb 2023 · 7 min · mechanism leadership
Mechanisms for Effective Machine Learning Projects
Pilot & copilot, literature review, methodology review, and timeboxing.
22 Jan 2023 · 7 min · mechanism machinelearning productivity
Goodbye Roam Research, Hello Obsidian
How to migrate and sync notes & images across devices
15 Jan 2023 · 2 min · til productivity
What To Do If Dependency Teams Can’t Help
Seeking first to understand, earning trust, and preparing for away team work.
08 Jan 2023 · 3 min · leadership misc
2022 in Review & 2023 Goals
Travelled, wrote, and learned a lot, L5 -> L6, gave a keynote at RecSyS, and started a meetup.
Autoencoders and Diffusers: A Brief Comparison
A quick overview of variational and denoising autoencoders and comparing them to diffusers.
11 Dec 2022 · 3 min · deeplearning
Text-to-Image: Diffusion, Text Conditioning, Guidance, Latent Space
The fundamentals of text-to-image generation, relevant papers, and experimenting with DDPM.
27 Nov 2022 · 19 min · deeplearning nlp survey
RecSys 2022: Recap, Favorite Papers, and Lessons
My three favorite papers, 17 paper summaries, and ML and non-ML lessons.
02 Oct 2022 · 14 min · recsys engineering production
️Writing Robust Tests for Data & Machine Learning Pipelines
Or why I should write fewer integration tests.
04 Sep 2022 · 19 min · engineering machinelearning production ❤️
Simplicity is An Advantage but Sadly Complexity Sells Better
Pushing back on the cult of complexity.
14 Aug 2022 · 7 min · machinelearning engineering production 🔥
Uncommon Uses of Python in Commonly Used Libraries
Some off-the-beaten uses of Python learned from reading libraries.
31 Jul 2022 · 10 min · python engineering 🔥
Why You Should Write Weekly 15-5s
15 minutes a week to document your work, increase visibility, and earn trust.
26 Jun 2022 · 4 min · mechanism productivity career
Design Patterns in Machine Learning Code and Systems
Understanding and spotting patterns to use code and components as intended.
12 Jun 2022 · 13 min · machinelearning engineering python 🔥
What I Wish I Knew About Onboarding Effectively
Mindset, 100-day plan, and balancing learning and taking action to earn trust.
Bandits for Recommender Systems
Industry examples, exploration strategies, warm-starting, off-policy evaluation, and more.
08 May 2022 · 14 min · teardown recsys machinelearning
How to Measure and Mitigate Position Bias
Introducing randomness and/or learning from inherent randomness to mitigate position bias.
17 Apr 2022 · 7 min · recsys datascience
Counterfactual Evaluation for Recommendation Systems
Thinking about recsys as interventional vs. observational, and inverse propensity scoring.
10 Apr 2022 · 8 min · recsys datascience
Traversing High-Level Intent and Low-Level Requirements
How they differ and why they work better in different situations.
20 Mar 2022 · 7 min · engineering datascience misc
Data Science Project Quick-Start
Hard-won lessons on how to start data science projects effectively.
06 Mar 2022 · 7 min · datascience engineering productivity
Mailbag: How to Define a Data Team's Vision and Roadmap
I'm heading into a team lead role and would like to define the vision and roadmap.
18 Feb 2022 · 3 min · leadership datascience career 📬
Red Flags to Look Out for When Joining a Data Team
What to consider for in terms of data, roadmap, role, manager, tooling, etc.
13 Feb 2022 · 8 min · datascience career 🔥
How to Keep Learning about Machine Learning
Beyond getting that starting role, how does one continue growing in the field?
19 Jan 2022 · 6 min · learning career machinelearning
2021 Year in Review
Met most of my goals, adopted a puppy, and built ApplyingML.com.
28 Nov 2021 · 7 min · productivity life
Informal Mentors Grew into ApplyingML.com!
More than two dozen interviews with ML Practitioners sharing their stories and advice
25 Nov 2021 · 1 min · machinelearning datascience career 🛠
5 Lessons I Learned from Writing Online (Guest post by Susan Shu)
Susan shares 5 lessons she gained from writing online in public over the past year.
07 Nov 2021 · 6 min · writing
What I Learned from Writing Online - For Fellow Non-Writers
Write before you're ready, write for yourself, quantity over quality, and a few other lessons.
17 Oct 2021 · 7 min · writing
RecSys 2021 - Papers and Talks to Chew on
Simple baselines, ideas, tech stacks, and packages to try.
03 Oct 2021 · 5 min · recsys deeplearning production survey
The First Rule of Machine Learning: Start without Machine Learning
Why this is the first rule, some baseline heuristics, and when to move on to machine learning.
19 Sep 2021 · 8 min · machinelearning career 🔥
Reinforcement Learning for Recommendations and Search
Focusing on long-term rewards, exploration, and frequently updated item.
05 Sep 2021 · 13 min · teardown recsys deeplearning
Bootstrapping Labels via ___ Supervision & Human-In-The-Loop
How to generate labels from scratch with semi, active, and weakly supervised learning.
01 Aug 2021 · 12 min · teardown machinelearning datascience
Mailbag: How to Bootstrap Labels for Relevant Docs in Search
Building semantic search; how to calculate recall when relevant documents are unknown.
20 Jul 2021 · 1 min · machinelearning 📬
Influencing without Authority for Data Scientists
Show them the data, the Socratic method, earning trust, and more.
04 Jul 2021 · 9 min · leadership career
System Design for Recommendations and Search
Breaking it into offline vs. online environments, and candidate retrieval vs. ranking steps.
27 Jun 2021 · 13 min · teardown production engineering recsys 🔥
Patterns for Personalization in Recommendations and Search
A whirlwind tour of bandits, embedding+MLP, sequences, graph, and user embeddings.
13 Jun 2021 · 25 min · teardown recsys machinelearning deeplearning
️The Metagame of Applying Machine Learning
How to go from knowing machine learning to applying it at work to drive impact.
02 May 2021 · 12 min · machinelearning datascience ❤️
Search: Query Matching via Lexical, Graph, and Embedding Methods
An overview and comparison of the various approaches, with examples from industry search systems.
25 Apr 2021 · 21 min · teardown machinelearning production 🔥
My Impostor Syndrome Stories (Guest Post by Susan Shu)
Even high achieving individuals experience impostor syndrome; here's how Susan learned to manage it.
How to Live with Chronic Imposter Syndrome
More education, achievements, and awards don't shoo away imposter syndrome. Here's what might help.
Planning Your Career: Values and Superpowers
What do you deeply care about? What do you excel at? Build a career out of that.
Choosing Problems in Data Science and Machine Learning
Short vs. long-term gain, incremental vs. disruptive innovation, and resume-driven development.
21 Mar 2021 · 12 min · datascience machinelearning leadership
Seven Habits that Shaped My Last Decade
I wish I started sooner. All have improved my life and several have compounding effects.
How to Write Design Docs for Machine Learning Systems
Pointers to think through your methodology and implementation, and the review process.
07 Mar 2021 · 15 min · writing machinelearning engineering
How to Write Better with The Why, What, How Framework
Three documents I write (one-pager, design doc, after-action review) and how I structure them.
28 Feb 2021 · 10 min · writing engineering productivity ❤️
Feature Stores: A Hierarchy of Needs
Access, serving, integrity, convenience, autopilot; use what you need.
21 Feb 2021 · 19 min · teardown machinelearning engineering 🔥
How to Win a Data Hackathon (Hacklytics 2021)
What the top teams did to win the 36-hour data hackathon. No, not machine learning.
14 Feb 2021 · 6 min · datascience engineering misc
Growing and Running Your Data Science Team
What I learned about hiring and training, and fostering innovation, discipline, and camaraderie.
31 Jan 2021 · 16 min · leadership datascience
You Don't Really Need Another MOOC
Stop procrastinating, go off the happy path, learn just-in-time, and get your hands dirty.
24 Jan 2021 · 9 min · learning datascience 🔥
Mailbag: How to Get Experienced DS Resume Noticed by Recruiters?
How to increase the chances of getting called up by recruiters?
16 Jan 2021 · 5 min · career datascience 📬
Real-time Machine Learning For Recommendations
Why real-time? How have China & US companies built them? How to design & build an MVP?
10 Jan 2021 · 21 min · teardown machinelearning recsys production 🔥
2021 Roadmap: Sharing, Helping, and Living More
A public roadmap to track and share my progress; nothing mission or work-related.
03 Jan 2021 · 4 min · productivity life
2020 Retrospective: New Country, New Role, New Habit
Wrapping up 2020 with writing and site statistics, graphs, and a word cloud.
20 Dec 2020 · 8 min · productivity life
Catch the Flying Daggers
A short story on flying daggers and life's challenges.
How I’m Reflecting on 2020 and Planning for 2021
Time to clear the cache, evaluate existing processes, and start new threads.
06 Dec 2020 · 4 min · productivity life
Alexey Grigorev on His Career, Data Science, and Writing
How he switched from engineering to data science, what "senior" means, and how writing helps.
29 Nov 2020 · 23 min · career datascience writing
Mailbag: What's the Architecture for your Blog?
How did you set up your site and what's an easy way to replicate it?
️What Machine Learning Can Teach Us About Life - 7 Lessons
Data cleaning, transfer learning, overfitting, ensembling, and more.
22 Nov 2020 · 11 min · machinelearning career life ❤️
How to Prevent or Deal with a Data Science Role or Title Mismatch
Interview questions you should ask and how to evolve your job scope.
15 Nov 2020 · 8 min · datascience career
Applied / Research Scientist, ML Engineer: What’s the Difference?
A personal take on their deliverables and skills, and what it means for the industry and your team.
08 Nov 2020 · 11 min · datascience machinelearning career
Chip Huyen on Her Career, Writing, and Machine Learning
Setbacks she faced, overcoming them, and how writing changed her life.
01 Nov 2020 · 11 min · career machinelearning writing
Data Discovery Platforms and Their Open Source Solutions
What questions do they answer? How do they compare? What open-source solutions are available?
25 Oct 2020 · 16 min · teardown datascience engineering 🔥
Why I switched from Netlify back to GitHub Pages
DNS server snafus led to email & security issues. Also, limited free build minutes monthly.
21 Oct 2020 · 3 min · misc
Why Have a Data Science Portfolio and What It Shows
Not 'How to build a data science portfolio', but 'Whys' and 'Whats'.
18 Oct 2020 · 15 min · datascience learning career
How to Install Google Scalable Nearest Neighbors (ScaNN) on Mac
Step-by-step walkthrough on the environment, compilers, and installation for ScaNN.
14 Oct 2020 · 3 min · python machinelearning til
How Prototyping Can Help You to Get Buy-In
Building prototypes helped get buy-in when roadmaps & design docs failed.
11 Oct 2020 · 7 min · datascience productivity
Is Writing as Important as Coding?
As careers grow, how does the balance between writing & coding change? Hear from 4 tech leaders.
04 Oct 2020 · 13 min · writing career leadership
RecSys 2020: Takeaways and Notable Papers
Emphasis on bias, more sequential models & bandits, robust offline evaluation, and recsys in the wild.
27 Sep 2020 · 16 min · recsys deeplearning production survey
Routines and Tools to Optimize My Day (Guest Post by Susan Shu)
For years I've refined my routines and found tools to manage my time. Here I share it with readers.
20 Sep 2020 · 16 min · productivity
How to Accomplish More with Less - Useful Tools & Routines
My tools for organization and creation, autopilot routines, and Maker's schedule
13 Sep 2020 · 11 min · productivity
Migrating Site Comments to Utterances
A step-by-step of how to migrate from json comments to Utterances.
How to Test Machine Learning Code and Systems
Checking for correct implementation, expected learned behaviour, and satisfactory performance.
06 Sep 2020 · 14 min · machinelearning engineering python
Mailbag: Parsing Fields from PDFs—When to Use Machine Learning?
Should I switch from a regex-based to ML-based solution on my application?
04 Sep 2020 · 4 min · machinelearning 📬
How Reading Papers Helps You Be a More Effective Data Scientist
Why read papers, what papers to read, and how to read them.
30 Aug 2020 · 6 min · learning
Mailbag: I'm Now a Senior DS—How should I Approach this?
Becoming a senior after three years and dealing with imposter syndrome.
27 Aug 2020 · 2 min · career datascience 📬
Embrace Beginner's Mind; Avoid The Wrong Way To Be An Expert
How not to become an expert beginner and to progress through beginner, intermediate, and so on.
NLP for Supervised Learning - A Brief Survey
Examining the broad strokes of NLP progress and comparing between models
16 Aug 2020 · 23 min · nlp deeplearning survey
Unpopular Opinion: Data Scientists Should be More End-to-End
Why (and why not) be more end-to-end, how to, and Stitch Fix and Netflix's experience
09 Aug 2020 · 17 min · datascience machinelearning leadership 🔥
Adding a Checkbox & Download Button to a FastAPI-HTML app
Updating our FastAPI app to let users select options and download results.
05 Aug 2020 · 3 min · engineering python til
️What I Did Not Learn About Writing In School
Surprising lessons I picked up from the best books, essays, and videos on writing non-fiction.
Georgia Tech's OMSCS FAQ (based on my experience)
Why OMSCS? How can I get accepted? How much time needed? Did it help your career? And more...
How to Set Up a HTML App with FastAPI, Jinja, Forms & Templates
I couldn't find any guides on serving HTML with FastAPI, thus I wrote this to plug the hole on the internet.
23 Jul 2020 · 3 min · engineering python til 🔥
Why You Need to Follow Up After Your Data Science Project
Ever revisit a project & replicate the results the first time round? Me neither. Thus I adopted these habits.
19 Jul 2020 · 12 min · mechanism datascience productivity
What I Do During A Data Science Project To Deliver Success
It's not enough to have a good strategy and plan. Execution is just as important.
12 Jul 2020 · 7 min · mechanism datascience productivity
How to Update a GitHub Profile README Automatically
I wanted to add my recent writing to my GitHub Profile README but was too lazy to do manual updates.
11 Jul 2020 · 3 min · engineering python til
️The 85% Rule: When Giving It Your 100% Gets You Less than 85%
I thought giving it my all led to maximum outcomes; then I learnt about the 85% rule.
09 Jul 2020 · 2 min · productivity life ❤️
My Notes From Spark+AI Summit 2020 (Application-Specific Talks)
Part II of the previous write-up, this time on applications and frameworks of Spark in production
05 Jul 2020 · 15 min · machinelearning deeplearning spark production survey
My Notes From Spark+AI Summit 2020 (Application-Agnostic Talks)
Sharing my notes & practical knowledge from the conference for people who don't have the time.
28 Jun 2020 · 11 min · machinelearning deeplearning spark survey
How to Set Up a Python Project For Automation and Collaboration
After this article, we'll have a workflow of tests and checks that run automatically with each git push.
21 Jun 2020 · 20 min · engineering production python productivity 🔥
Mailbag: Qns on the Intersection of Data Science and Business
Does DS have business requirements? When does it make sense to split DS and DE??
21 Jun 2020 · 3 min · datascience 📬
Why Are My Airflow Jobs Running “One Day Late”?
A curious discussion made me realize my expert blind spot. And no, Airflow is not late.
17 Jun 2020 · 3 min · datascience engineering production til
What I Do Before a Data Science Project to Ensure Success
Haste makes waste. Diving into a data science problem may not be the fastest route to getting it done.
15 Jun 2020 · 12 min · mechanism datascience productivity
What I Love about Scrum for Data Science
Initially, I didn't like it. But over time, it grew on me. Here's why.
07 Jun 2020 · 10 min · mechanism agile leadership datascience
How to Apply Crocker's Law for Feedback and Growth
Crocker's Law, cognitive dissonance, and how to receive (uncomfortable) feedback better.
A Practical Guide to Maintaining Machine Learning in Production
Can maintaining machine learning in production be easier? I go through some practical tips.
25 May 2020 · 16 min · machinelearning engineering production
6 Little-Known Challenges After Deploying Machine Learning
I thought deploying machine learning was hard. Then I had to maintain multiple systems in prod.
18 May 2020 · 14 min · machinelearning engineering production
How to Write: Advice from David Perell and Sahil Lavingia
An expansion of my Twitter thread that went viral.
09 May 2020 · 4 min · writing
A Hackathon Where the Dinkiest Idea Won. Why?
What I Learnt about evaluating ideas from first-hand participation in a hackathon.
03 May 2020 · 7 min · datascience lazada
Serendipity: Accuracy’s Unpopular Best Friend in Recommenders
What I learned about measuring diversity, novelty, surprise, and serendipity from 10+ papers.
How to Give a Kick-Ass Data Science Talk
Why you should give a talk and some tips from five years of speaking and hosting meet-ups.
18 Apr 2020 · 7 min · datascience writing
Commando, Soldier, Police and Your Career Choices
Should I join a start-up? Which offer should I accept? A simple metaphor to guide your decisions.
12 Apr 2020 · 6 min · career
Stop Taking Regular Notes; Use a Zettelkasten Instead
Using a Zettelkasten helps you make connections between notes, improving learning and memory.
05 Apr 2020 · 6 min · writing learning productivity 🔥
Writing is Learning: How I Learned an Easier Way to Write
Writing begins before actually writing; it's a cycle of reading -> note-taking -> writing.
Simpler Experimentation with Jupyter, Papermill, and MLflow
Automate your experimentation workflow to minimize effort and iterate faster.
15 Mar 2020 · 6 min · datascience productivity python
My Journey from Psych Grad to Leading Data Science at Lazada
How hard work, many failures, and a bit of luck got me into the field and up the ladder.
27 Feb 2020 · 12 min · career datascience lazada 🔥
Beating the Baseline Recommender with Graph & NLP in Pytorch
Beating the baseline using Graph & NLP techniques on PyTorch, AUC improvement of ~21% (Part 2 of 2).
13 Jan 2020 · 17 min · recsys deeplearning nlp python 🛠
Building a Strong Baseline Recommender in PyTorch, on a Laptop
Building a baseline recsys based on data scraped off Amazon. Warning - Lots of charts! (Part 1 of 2).
06 Jan 2020 · 14 min · recsys deeplearning python 🛠
OMSCS CS6200 (Introduction to OS) Review and Tips
OMSCS CS6200 (Introduction to OS) - Moving data from one process to another, multi-threaded.
15 Dec 2019 · 7 min · omscs learning engineering
OMSCS CS6750 (Human Computer Interaction) Review and Tips
OMSCS CS6750 (Human Computer Interaction) - You are not your user! Or how to build great products.
Goodbye Wordpress, Hello Jekyll!
Moving off wordpress and hosting for free on GitHub. And gaining full customization!
25 Aug 2019 · 1 min · misc
OMSCS CS6440 (Intro to Health Informatics) Review and Tips
OMSCS CS6440 (Intro to Health Informatics) - A primer on key tech and standards in healthtech.
OMSCS CS7646 (Machine Learning for Trading) Review and Tips
OMSCS CS7646 (Machine Learning for Trading) - Don't sell your house to trade algorithmically.
11 May 2019 · 9 min · omscs learning machinelearning python
What does a Data Scientist really do?
No, you don't need a PhD or 10+ years of experience.
30 Apr 2019 · 8 min · career datascience
Data Science and Agile (Frameworks for Effectiveness)
Taking the best from agile and modifying it to fit the data science process (Part 2 of 2).
02 Feb 2019 · 14 min · mechanism agile datascience productivity
Data Science and Agile (What Works, and What Doesn't)
A deeper look into the strengths and weaknesses of Agile in Data Science projects (Part 1 of 2).
26 Jan 2019 · 13 min · agile datascience productivity 🔥
OMSCS CS6601 (Artificial Intelligence) Review and Tips
OMSCS CS6601 (Artificial Intelligence) - First, start with the simplest solution, and then add intelligence.
20 Dec 2018 · 8 min · omscs learning machinelearning python
OMSCS CS6460 (Education Technology) Review and Tips
OMSCS CS6460 (Education Technology) - How to scale education widely through technology.
OMSCS CS7642 (Reinforcement Learning) Review and Tips
OMSCS CS7642 (Reinforcement Learning) - Landing rockets (fun!) via deep Q-Learning (and its variants).
30 Jul 2018 · 6 min · omscs learning deeplearning python
Building a Strong Data Science Team Culture
Culture >> Hierarchy, Process, Bureaucracy.
12 May 2018 · 5 min · leadership datascience lazada
OMSCS CS7641 (Machine Learning) Review and Tips
OMSCS CS7641 (Machine Learning) - Revisiting the fundamentals and learning new techniques.
27 Dec 2017 · 4 min · omscs learning machinelearning python
My first 100 days as Data Science Lead
How being a Lead / Manager is different from being an individual contributor.
25 Sep 2017 · 5 min · leadership datascience lazada
OMSCS CS6300 (Software Development Process) Review and Tips
OMSCS CS6300 (Software Development Process) - Java and collaboratively developing an Android app.
13 Aug 2017 · 5 min · omscs learning engineering
How to get started in Data Science
Tools and skills to pick up, and how to practice them.
25 Jun 2017 · 9 min · datascience learning career
OMSCS CS6476 (Computer Vision) Review and Tips
OMSCS CS6476 Computer Vision - Performing computer vision tasks with ONLY numpy.
15 May 2017 · 5 min · omscs learning deeplearning python
One way to help a data science team innovate successfully
If things are not failing, you're not innovating enough. - Elon Musk
19 Feb 2017 · 3 min · leadership datascience lazada
Product Categorization API Part 3: Creating an API
Or how to put machine learning models into production.
13 Feb 2017 · 8 min · machinelearning production python 🛠
Image search is now live!
A web app to find similar products based on image.
14 Jan 2017 · 4 min · deeplearning python production 🛠
Product Classification API Part 2: Data Preparation
Cleaning up text and messing with ascii (urgh!)
11 Dec 2016 · 8 min · datascience machinelearning python 🛠
Image classification API is now live!
A simple web app to classify fashion images into Amazon categories.
27 Nov 2016 · 2 min · deeplearning python production 🛠
I'm going back to school
Got accepted into Georgia Tech's Computer Science Masters!
SortMySkills is now live!
A card sorting game to discover youl passion by identifying skills you like and dislike.
Product Classification API Part 1: Data Acquisition
Parsing json and formatting product titles and categories.
11 Oct 2016 · 9 min · datascience python 🛠
Thoughts on Functional Programming in Scala Course (Coursera)
Learning Scala from Martin Odersky, father of Scala.
31 Jul 2016 · 4 min · learning
DataKind Singapore’s Latest Project Accelerator
Guest post of how DataKind SG worked with NGOs to frame their problems and suggests solutions
17 Sep 2015 · 8 min · datascience
167 posts, 297,852 words, and countless hours.
Join 4,800+ readers getting updates on machine learning, engineering, and mechanisms.