Today's Concept of the Week is Occam's Razor, along with other related ideas like Hanlon's Razor. - The Dragon in My Garage - Fermi Estimation - Why your iPhone is probably not recording all your conversations; but if it was what how it might do it. - How early is too early for Halloween? Get full access to The Local Maximum at localmaximum.substack.com/subscribe
This week’s guest is Mark Ryan, author of the upcoming book Deep Learning with Structured Data. We cover: - How machine learning has come to dominate Artificial Intelligence over the last few decades - How the deep learning, which can solve problems like natural language understanding and image recognition - is becoming more and more practical, and gets results even in more traditional datasets - How to learn to become a machine learning engineer through online tutorials and frameworks - Where t...
On the news that Amazon wants to put Alexa into wearable devices, we discuss the idea that the focus in consumer tech has moved to sound, including voice controls, augmented reality, and podcasting. Max gives an update on the Betaworks Hearing Voices conference that highlighted the latest tech, demos, and ideas in this area. Plus - we follow up on previous episodes, including Aaron’s predictions on the Metaculus engine, and how Max missed a subway stop because he was reading Reddit. localmaxradi...
Part 2 of Max's discussion with Anthony Aguirre, cofounder of the Metaculus prediction engine. Topics include: - The difference between making short term, long term, and theoretical predictions - The human mind and human emotions - as imperfect as they are - being world's best tool for prediction making - Calibrating your probabilities, on an individual and group level - Predictions of humor-detecting AI, waking up after being cryogenically frozen, and political developments localmaxradio.com/85...
Max talks to cosmologist Anthony Aguirre about the fundamental nature of the universe, with the following questions: Is the Space Discrete or Continuous? How does our physics differ from Virtual Reality, or the model we have in our brain? What is Fourier space? What does it mean that the universe is made of information? Is there a fundamental bit? In most cases, things aren’t what they seem! Check out Anthony’s Book on the subject: Cosmological Koans. localmaxradio.com/84 Get full access to The ...
Max follows through on his promise to take down the big lie about Bitcoin - that it’ll consume all our energy and destroy the earth. He goes through the simple math that shows this won’t be a problem, and talk about how Bitcoin can encourage better energy technology. Jack Ma and Elon Musk were recently in a debate/discussion about AI in Shanghai, and they are in such opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to their philosophical outlook! We talk about what they said, and where they agreed. F...
Henry Abramson, Dean of Touro College in Brooklyn, tells us about how he took his Jewish History Lectures online. We talk a bit about the historical shift in communication, information, and education that the internet and YouTube represent and his dealings with feedback, trolling, and algorithms. Finally, we learn about his biggest influences, and some specific lectures and why the internet has gravitated towards them. localmaxradio.com/82 henryabramson.com Get full access to The Local Maximum a...
Ever feel like there’s something wrong with all the news and information you consume, even when you get it from professional scientists and doctors? We tackle the reproducibility crisis in science today starting with taking a look at some mudslinging between high profile online academics Andrew Gelman and Cass Sunstein. We also talk about the probable over-publishing of studies in stock market prediction and elsewhere, and scientists reading too much when interpreting results to fit their narrat...
The recent sale of the creative and niche site Tumblr to Wordpress from Verizon shows an over 99% loss of value from it’s original sale to Yahoo in 2013. We look back at the phases Tumblr’s been through, and how this fits with the larger social, technological, and business trends. Get full access to The Local Maximum at localmaximum.substack.com/subscribe
This is a conversation with Timoni West at Unity Labs about the emerging tech of Virtual, Augmented, and Mixed reality. We talk about how these new worlds are being created, the challenges that need to be overcome, and how they will be different than you may have assumed from watching your favorite sci-fi movies. localmaxradio.com/79 Get full access to The Local Maximum at localmaximum.substack.com/subscribe...
As Max returns from Lviv Ukraine where he offered a course on Bayesian thinking, he shares his knowledge and insights. - What are the drawbacks and limitations to Bayes rule vs other approaches? - Is probability objective or subjective? - How did Larry David illustrates argument by analogy? - The von Mises brothers include one free market economist (Ludwig) and one statistician (Richard) - what did they have to say on this topic? - What’s the problem with a Flat Earth Prior? Get full access to T...
Frequent Local Maximum contributor Maryam Aly comes on to discuss her career into competitive foosball, and how she achieved a top ranking in the global foosball leaderboard. We also discuss lessons on teamwork and communication that Maryam has transferred from Foosball over to the software engineering realm! localmaxradio.com/77 Get full access to The Local Maximum at localmaximum.substack.com/subscribe...
Politicians and bureaucrats in the US are talking about Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency after Facebook announces that they’ll get in the game - including a Trump tweet. Some people are sending Bitcoin through the radio waves to prepare for an extreme scenario. Googlers clearly want to elect a democrat in 2020 - and this is affecting their product decisions. Researchers say an AI is learning science - but Max and Aaron break down what this really means. Plus - find out about Max’s new job! Get full ac...
I discuss with AIER director Jeffrey Tucker his new book, The Market Loves You, covering triumphs of markets and innovation such as the railroad, the word processor, and shoes. We turn to today’s big ideas in Bitcoin, Social Media, and the App Frenzy, and the unresolved problems that the next crop of entrepreneurs, engineers, and consumers will tackle. Finally, we cover the nature of innovation itself. Why do people become entrepreneurs? What is the role of engineers and product developers? And ...
The US Supreme Court says that it can’t weigh in on Gerrymandered districts. We look at the idea of Gerrymandering in the United States, armed with the new social choice tools that we picked up in previous episodes. A Cloudflare outage temporarily takes down a portion of the internet. This may be evidence of a central point of failure, but could that central point be shrinking? Finally we talk about a Bayesian argument in the Wall Street Journal and recently released book that claims to predict ...
Talk Python To Me host Michael Kennedy discusses a range of issues with Max, including Python's popularity as a programming language and what we can learn from that, hosting a podcast as part of a business, and how programming skills can fit well with other careers and in our education system. Get full access to The Local Maximum at localmaximum.substack.com/subscribe
Facebook’s proposed cryptocurrency called Libra is supposed to aid international transactions. Does it compete with banks, or does it compete with Bitcoin? And what are the chances that Facebook and their 100-member consortium of companies will follow through on this over the next few years? We then turn to the idea of voting power, and learn about one important metric when it comes to analyzing voting systems: The Shapely Power Index. We’re dive into how it’s computed, what it means, and what i...
We hear from Tassos Noulas, faculty fellow at the NYU Center for Data Science about Urban Data Science and the related theory and projects. In the age of big data, scientists have found a better understanding of how cities develop, how to improve transport networks, and some ideas for future products that can be built around taxis and AR. Topics include the Future Cities Challenge, Taxi price comparison apps, retail gravitation, central place theory, the relationship with fractal geometry, and w...
I look at the woe’s of social media and YouTube today, and discover that similar problems have occurred throughout history. Covering the rise of radio in the 1920’s and 1930’s including Fascist orators and federal intervention of radio in the 1930s, Cable News Fights, the FCC worried about explicit content in the 1990s and 2000s. Finally, I compare the truly decentralized universe of podcasts - the podoverse - with the tech-giant run social media systems like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, and ...
Apple announces that they are unbundling iTunes into several apps at WWDC. Some feared this means the end of iTunes, but we discuss how it's actually a design upgrade. Foursquare and Placed brought together in a big spinoff-merger deal. What does that mean for the future of location, ads, and attribution? Lots of emphasis on privacy at WWDC. Cubans to get private wifi - are they slowing joining the 21st century? localmaxradio.com/69 Finally, we look at the history of the content creation and dis...
Aaron and I discuss my list of 6 university courses that in retrospect have influenced me in surprising and unexpected ways, even after many years. The list is: Yale's Writing Seminar (Yale) Functional Programming (Yale) Philosophy and Computer Science (Yale) Emerging Technology and Business Innovation (NYU Stern) Machine Learning (NYU Courant) Electronic Communities (NYU Stern) Get full access to The Local Maximum at localmaximum.substack.com/subscribe...
The episode starts with a game of thrones discussion for 2 minutes (how can it not)! And then Max discusses some related news items coming out of China: The Rise of The Social Credit Score The Re-Education Camps the Uighers and others in Western China are being forced into Causality Myths The Big Debate on Socialism vs Capitalism Get full access to The Local Maximum at localmaximum.substack.com/subscribe...
I visited Foursquare HQ to check in with Executive Chairman Dennis Crowley. - Personal stories and the Innovative mind - Industry trends in consumer apps/big data - Foursquare's latest labs project: hypertrending at SXSW I also follow up on last weeks episode, with more details on voting affecting the outcome of an election, and the turkey vs email problem. Get full access to The Local Maximum at localmaximum.substack.com/subscribe...
How can one estimate the probability of an unprecedented event - something that has never happened before - happening? It seems like a hopeless endeavor, but there actually are valid strategies to tackle this problem. We also recap the interviews that occurred in the 5 previous episodes, and the continuing closure and censorship of our social networks as they are increasingly becoming associated with violence in the real world - and how we're going to get out of this. Get full access to The Loca...
Marc Cenedella is the CEO of Ladders, Inc, and today he talks to Max about the Ladders Job Search service, and the job matching problem in the 21st century. After diving into The Ladders’ specific audience and product approach, the conversation turns to Max’s resume. The advice provided is invaluable to all job seekers - present and future - out there. localmaxradio.com/64 Get full access to The Local Maximum at localmaximum.substack.com/subscribe...
Today’s interview is with Bethany Crystal at Union Square Ventures. We cover a lot of ground Building Network Effects as a means to Market Power Building Careers, avoiding the career cliff Inspiration from the Idea of Transfer Learning Diversification in investments and in the self Check out Bethany’s blog: http://bethanycrystal.com/blog/ I also talk about the launch of the Luminary Podcast Network: luminarypodcasts.com Also - get my take on Google’s ill-fated AI Ethics panel. localmaxradio.com/...
Today's interview was done at a Tech2025 event where participants were asked to think about wealth and the present state of the US and Global economy. I spoke to Denise Hearn, author of "The Myth of Capitalism" about the trend towards Oligopoly and its causes. Also included are discussions about the definition of capitalism, the definition of wealth, the price of a free good, regulatory capture, and the role of our monetary system in distorting the economy. localmaxradio.com/62 https://www.mytho...
Michael Bronspigel runs the Facebook capitalism page and tells the story of how Facebook’s algorithm and policies affected his group. We also talk about - the nature of online properties - the story of how he started the group and turned it into a business - retro internet memes - the push to further crack down on content The group: fb.com/capitalists , capitalismisfreedom.org Show notes: localmaxradio.com/61 Get full access to The Local Maximum at localmaximum.substack.com/subscribe...
I caught up with Hilary Mason, GM of Machine Learning at Cloudera and former founder of Fast Forward Labs. We cover how to: - Generate ideas for Machine Learning Research - Hold a good brainstorm - Break into tech as a Data Scientist - Give an engaging and successful tech talk I also asked Hilary about the evolving role of Machine Learning and Data Science, and what she wants to build in the future! Get full access to The Local Maximum at localmaximum.substack.com/subscribe...
Today we have a look at how information technology is affecting life in authoritarian socialist regimes such as Cuba and Venezuela. Particularly, we discuss the introduction of 3G cellular service in Cuba, and how it has needed to compromise on allowing more connectivity to its citizens over the last decade.In the case of Venezuela, we look at how cryptocurrency (and Bitcoin in particular) is being used to work around currency controls and hyperinflation. It’s still speculative on how much this ...
