Weekly Review, 2020-12-27

Weekly reviews are where I aggregate the best of each week. I often highlight my own writing and tweets along with links to articles, podcasts, and books.

This week, I also threw in some notes about [[MTB]] and [[snowboarding]].

My Writings of the Week

One of my goals for [[2021]] is to be much more active online. That includes writing consistently on nicktorba.com, tweeting more, and writing on forums like hacker news. This week, I wrote my first comments on a [[Hacker News]] article about [[Metaflow]] and [[Cortex]].

Tweets

Following up with my goal to be more active online in [[2021]], I shared a great thread with [[Trent Fowler]] starting with his tweet. This was a great example of why engaging on twitter will be a huge boost. The thread led to some really cool ideas

Trent also has a podcast that he doesn't link to in his twitter profile, but I found from this tweet. I listened to this episode, which was really cool. [[Mark Jackson]], the interviewee, is very enthusiastic and knowledgable. It is an exciting intro into the world of [[quantum computing]].

I would have never found this podcast and heard those ideas had I not taken the time to engage with Trent.

Update on the [[Voice Memo Experiment]]

Last week, I shared the launch of the [[Voice Memo Experiment]]. Since then, I've sent six more memos to new people (only six because I skipped Christmas). It as been a resounding success. I reconnected with multiple friends I hadn't talked to in years in a much more enjoyable way than text. Those that sent one back often say something like "sorry I rambled, but here you go." I found this so interesting, because I literally asked them to send me back their ramblings. People just aren't used to talking for that long without interruption. And when they do, they often think the other person is annoyed. It's great to hear the words and ideas that surface in that environment.

Podcasts of the Week

Mark Jackson Talks About Quantum Computing And Its Applications

  • I write more about this in the "Tweets" section above

Articles of the Week

Production Machine Learning Monitoring: Outliers, Drift, Explainers & Statistical Performance
  • This is a fantastic video and article of [[seldon]]'s production ML tools. The model monitoring functionality is coming out at a perfect time for my work project and the video is a great inspiration on how to craft a great technical presentation.

Not exactly an article, but a courseI bought for two main reasons

  • The creator [[Jack Butcher]] receives incredible feedback for his courses and has a great twitter account. This is one of his cheapest courses, so I decided to give it a try
  • With the idea for [[open source coaching]] hot in my mind, I have a good toy project to apply the principles of this course to

One great surprise about this course is the community it creates. After purchase, you gain access to a forum of all the others who bought the course (this may not have been meant as a surprise, but I hadn't read about this until I bought it).

Things You're Allowed To Do

I love the idea for this article. Many more people can do what's on this list without realizing it. The first one that grabbed me was hiring a researcher, which I found interesting not only because it would be cool to hire one, but also because it seems like an interesting job to have.

Books

I finished reading [[The Power Paradox]], but I haven't reviewed and updated my notes yet

[[MTB]] Notes this Week

Added [[Brevard, North Carolina]] to the [[MTB Locations Hitlist]] after I watched this video taken in [[Pisgha National Forrest]]. Brevard is also a short drive to [[Kanuga]].

[[snowboarding]] Notes this Week

In the spirit of doing more manual work on my bike, I decided to edge and wax my own snowboard for the first time instead of sending it to the shop.

I bought a Dakine tuning kit and a little waxing iron from [[REI]] (sticklers will say I overpaid, and I probably did, but this made my life easier) and watched a few different youtube videos. It was a good way to spend a morning. I hit the slopes for the first time in two years at [[Blue Mountain]] on [[2020-12-26]] and the board felt great, so I couldn't have done too bad.

One funny experience from this is that even as a complete beginner, I saw videos that were using the tools wrong. For example, the tuning kit comes with an edge tool that is meant to be used in a single direction (tip to tail), but the first video I found was a guy aggressively using that tool going back and forth along his edges. It was a good lesson in why you should also read and watch through information from many different sources before practicing a new skill.

Random

I opened a Roth IRA this week. I had not realized you can open a personal Roth IRA that is separate from a Roth 401k. That sentence looks so obvious in hindsight, but it just wasn't clear to me, and I imagine that's the same with many others. I wish more people were aware of the benefits of this account and started them much earlier since the contribution cap (6k/yr) is so small.

Final Thoughts

Last week I said I'm writing my first ever yearly review. This week, I started reviewing my daily notes in Roam. Going through each day has been slow, but enjoyable. I'm resurfacing many dormant notes, ideas, articles, and more. I'm not sure what form the annual review will end up taking, but I'm even more excited about this project. The yearly review will likely replace my weekly review in one of the coming weeks. Stay tuned!



My Linked Notes

One last thing

If you liked these notes, hit me on Twitter!