I’m interested in earning to give, and my current projects have to do with maximizing my income.
I’ve been taking Coursera classes that seem relevant to machine learning/”data science” (1, 2, 3, 4, 5). My reasons:
Seems likely to be more lucrative than regular old software development, which is what I’m doing right now. Indeed.com salary graph. Kaggle.com is paying it’s top 0.5% of data scientists $200/hr. McKinsey says there’s going to be a shortage of people with big data skills. Another article.
Some of the skills overlap with what MIRI is looking for in researchers. Hey, can’t hurt.
A good friend with a strong math background has been having a lot of success over the past few years trading stocks. But he’s relatively weak in programming and machine learning. We might make a good team. Even if I don’t work with him, knowing more machine learning seems like it could be a good way to make big bucks in finance.
I’d be curious to hear from LWers who are informed on these topics whether they think “big data” will live up to the hype, and whether “data scientists” are liable to get automated away by software that’s being written by startups.
Another idea for increasing my income is to go in to some kind of management role. To that end, I’ve been experimenting with nootropic drugs that seem like they might make me more sociable. I don’t consider myself socially deficient, but I’m not as much of a social butterfly as I’d like to be. Wikipedia says that increased sensitivity to dopamine seems to be related to extraversion, and I’ve seen studies suggesting that increased dopamine receptor density is related to higher social status in monkeys and humans. (I don’t think that acting like an arrogant jerk is optimal for achieving any of my social goals, but I’m assuming that acting humble when one feels confident is easier than acting confident when one feels humble.) So I ordered some phenylpiracetam, which seems to upregulate D2 receptors in rats. I’ve also been cycling sulbutiamine, which I’ve read positive anecdotal reports about (mostly on a Russian websites, but here is one in English), and I do think it’s gradually working. (Possible caveats in addition to the stuff you’d find yourself by Googling: may be “excitotoxic”, may be dangerous when used w/ antidepressants.)
I’m a complete amateur at neuroscience, so I’d appreciate any feedback on any of this.
I’d be curious to hear from LWers who are informed on these topics whether they think “big data” will live up to the hype, and whether “data scientists” are liable to get automated away by software that’s being written by startups.
I’m just reasoning by analogy here but sysadmins still exist despite the fact that a decent sysadmin’s reaction to seeing a problem for the third time is to try and automate it. Data analysis is hard. Making it easier just lets people do things that are in some sense objectively harder with similar skill levels because the tools are better.
I’m interested in earning to give, and my current projects have to do with maximizing my income.
I’ve been taking Coursera classes that seem relevant to machine learning/”data science” (1, 2, 3, 4, 5). My reasons:
Seems likely to be more lucrative than regular old software development, which is what I’m doing right now. Indeed.com salary graph. Kaggle.com is paying it’s top 0.5% of data scientists $200/hr. McKinsey says there’s going to be a shortage of people with big data skills. Another article.
Some of the skills overlap with what MIRI is looking for in researchers. Hey, can’t hurt.
A good friend with a strong math background has been having a lot of success over the past few years trading stocks. But he’s relatively weak in programming and machine learning. We might make a good team. Even if I don’t work with him, knowing more machine learning seems like it could be a good way to make big bucks in finance.
I’d be curious to hear from LWers who are informed on these topics whether they think “big data” will live up to the hype, and whether “data scientists” are liable to get automated away by software that’s being written by startups.
Another idea for increasing my income is to go in to some kind of management role. To that end, I’ve been experimenting with nootropic drugs that seem like they might make me more sociable. I don’t consider myself socially deficient, but I’m not as much of a social butterfly as I’d like to be. Wikipedia says that increased sensitivity to dopamine seems to be related to extraversion, and I’ve seen studies suggesting that increased dopamine receptor density is related to higher social status in monkeys and humans. (I don’t think that acting like an arrogant jerk is optimal for achieving any of my social goals, but I’m assuming that acting humble when one feels confident is easier than acting confident when one feels humble.) So I ordered some phenylpiracetam, which seems to upregulate D2 receptors in rats. I’ve also been cycling sulbutiamine, which I’ve read positive anecdotal reports about (mostly on a Russian websites, but here is one in English), and I do think it’s gradually working. (Possible caveats in addition to the stuff you’d find yourself by Googling: may be “excitotoxic”, may be dangerous when used w/ antidepressants.)
I’m a complete amateur at neuroscience, so I’d appreciate any feedback on any of this.
I’m just reasoning by analogy here but sysadmins still exist despite the fact that a decent sysadmin’s reaction to seeing a problem for the third time is to try and automate it. Data analysis is hard. Making it easier just lets people do things that are in some sense objectively harder with similar skill levels because the tools are better.