This is the second edition of Paths, a series outlining emerging technologies with clear steps on how to get started in each field. In this post, we’ll explore why it’s an exciting time to get into VR now–both for consumers and developers. Then, we’ll discuss how a wide range of interdisciplinary fields have pushed the technology forward. And last, we’ll identify concrete ways in which you can get started.
May 3, 2017The tragedy of data science is that 79% of an analyst’s time goes to data preparation. Data preparation is not only tedious, it steals time from analysis. Data packages make for fast, reproducible analysis by simplifying data prep, eliminating parsing, and versioning data. In round numbers, data packages speed both I/O and data preparation by a factor of 10.
Apr 25, 2017Experts are generally right until they’re wrong. Unfortunately, it’s very easy to get fooled into thinking that experts are always right. This is especially true when it comes to trying new things in existing fields. We are biased into believing that knowing a lot about something confers an ability to predict the future.
Apr 24, 2017You have likely seen Christopher Hesse’s demo of image-to-image translation (a Tensorflow port of pix2pix by Isola et al.). You might even be thinking that you want to try using your own set of images to see what kinds of crazy things this model will start pumping out. Pachyderm has created a totally reusable and generic pipeline that takes care of all the training, pre-processing, etc. for you, so you can jump right into the fun parts.
Apr 14, 2017We partnered up with China Tech Insights, a research group within Tencent (WeChat’s parent company) to understand how WeChat drives its 889 Million monthly active users to use the app an average of 50+ minutes, and 9 to 11 separate times, per day. This post dives into the growth strategy that led to key WeChat milestones, lessons learned and gives insight into the method behind the madness as WeChat scaled from 0 to 800M+ MAUs in less than 6 years.
Apr 12, 2017Before CRISPR, genetic engineering was slow, expensive, and inaccurate. With CRISPR, genome editing is cheap, accurate, and repeatable. This is the story of CRISPR, concluding with a discussion of Gene Drive, a biological technique which, when used with CRISPR, gives even greater power to genetic engineers.
Apr 3, 2017Raising a round should be a byproduct of success. By deemphasizing investment rounds we would have more opportunity to celebrate companies who develop measurable milestones of value creation, focus on serving a customer with a real need, and generate sustainable businesses with good margins.
Feb 6, 2017