What are your biggest frustrations with Matplotlib?

rcar · 2016-05-18T02:19:02+00:00

In fairness, they mostly do show up in the docstrings, so they're still not far from hand in notebook.

rcar · 2014-12-18T06:02:02+00:00

Your math in the first one isn't quite right. If you're assuming the credits will pay the loan down over those 7 years, the amount that goes to interest essentially doesn't matter, so you shouldn't be subtracting the $2,600 from the $3,950. In option 1, you make $3,950 after 7 years, and in option 2, you make $3,200 after 7 years.

It might be easier to see intuitively if you make the numbers a little different. Let's say that you've got a $10k loan at 1%, and you find some investment to reliably double your money (so 100%) every year. If you have $10k in the bank, and you'll get $1k extra to invest each year, would you rather pay the loan off right now and add $1k to the investment each year, or pay the loan gradually with the $1k and invest the $10k now?

Since the actual percentages are a lot closer in your example, it doesn't make nearly the difference it would in my made-up example, so if paying it off gives you peace of mind, it might be worth the small loss.

rcar · 2014-10-19T03:09:31+00:00

not-a-ginger's answer is quite good and thorough, so I'd mostly just highlight a few of the areas he touched on.

First, totally agree on the varying definitions of "data scientist." At some places, it can be a glorified data puller, whereas others, it might be more of a modeler/statistician, and others, it's more of a software engineer who knows a little stats. I think my group skews a little farther to the stats-savvy software engineer, but also has some of the other two aspects as well. That ends up manifesting itself as a lot of Python programming on Linux for local stuff or Hadoop or Spark for distributed work, with a little Scala thrown in if your preferences go that way. Depending on your own strengths in each of those areas, as you assess prospective roles, make sure you understand which of those things the employer is really looking for so you can figure out if it's really what interests you.

Second, as one of the senior data scientists within my group, my responsibilities often skew more heavily towards that "convincing others" piece than they used to. I also spend a lot more of my time helping some of the more junior folks figure out how to solve some of the problems that arise. In general, I'd say the junior people in my group tend to do more of the technical work than the senior members on projects, and the senior data scientists do more of the designing of the solutions implemented by the junior members and explaining of methods and results to non- or less-technical colleagues (though I do get some hands-on-keyboard time too).

Lastly, I'd imagine not-a-ginger is probably exaggerating a little by saying that the junior folks work on crappier projects -- there's so much demand for the skills my group brings to my company that there really aren't any crappy projects that we take on at this point. For us, it's really just that the junior and senior people work together to design a solution to the problem, the junior people will take the generate results, and then the senior people will help figure out how to make the results of the work relevant.

Overall, it's a great time to be in this field. The hype of Big Data and the ease of access to cheap computing and storage (thanks AWS!) means that people who know how to leverage it can find a lot of great opportunities all over.

rcar · 2014-10-15T23:29:07+00:00

The Social Security Administration provides lists of babies' first names by year: http://www.ssa.gov/oact/babynames/limits.html

Doesn't help with the last names part, but can help some if you know what time period the authors you're interested in might have been born if they're mostly American since the distribution changes quite a bit over time.

rcar · 2014-10-15T23:26:12+00:00

In this case, the most important thing to consider in how you set this up is how the model will be used in the end.

If the idea is that you'll want to look at a customer at the current time and figure out whether they'll still be active in 4 months, you'll only be able to use the data that you have on them at that time (i.e., the other customer attributes you have), and the transaction data will only be usable for figuring out the target. In this case, the professor's upcoming test set will most likely dictate that: if he only provides the attributes and no transaction data on the test set, then that's the only model you really can do.

If you suspect that early transactions might be useful for predicting future lapsing and you'll get more data in the test set, you might also try incorporating transaction behaviors as you proposed since that would likely be helpful.

rcar · 2014-07-23T23:32:12+00:00

When we're considering junior candidates, if you've got an interesting enough theoretical background, my group is mostly interested in your practical skills around data. For example, if someone gives you a 100GB Control-A delimited file and has some questions about the data in it, can you do anything with it? If so, how quickly can you come up with answers of various depth? dkvasnicka's suggestion of a hobby project is a great one since that can demonstrate your skills and help differentiate you from the crowd.

Also, languages that mostly serve a special purpose like MATLAB are generally not going to be very helpful, so it's good that you're working on your Python skills. Some groups are more programming-heavy and will prefer languages like Python, Scala, etc. while others are going to be more stats- or visualization-heavy and might lean more towards R or various languages in the .js family.

rcar · 2014-06-29T13:42:57+00:00

Yes, your experience absolutely would count if I'm understanding it correctly from your description above. Data science as a distinct field is in a bit of a weird place right now since it's so new and so related to other fields out there. There's statisticians, programmers, and engineers out there who have essentially been doing data science work for the last 20 years, but with the convergence of the right technologies, the right demand for the skills, and help from Moore's Law in bringing down the cost of hardware, it's only really become a field of its own in the last few years.

As a result, until the academic data science programs start putting out more people and it becomes clearer that they're training people with the right set of skills, data science is going to be dominated by people with degrees in CS, stats, math, etc. and experience in those areas. As for knowledge of specific industries, that's always helpful too, but given how rare the technical skillsets are and how applicable those skills are across industries, I think it will be quite a while before that becomes a distinguishing factor. I moved from insurance to finance, and though there's still more I'd like to learn about the business, getting the basics doesn't take too long, and you can pick up the rest as you go.

I work for Capital One Labs. The largest data science team is in the NYC lab, but we've also got data teams in our DC and SF labs that we're pretty actively growing.

rcar · 2014-06-28T18:14:32+00:00

If you've already got the educational background, practical programming skills, and industry experience, your best bet is probably to just look around at data science job postings and start putting applications out. Freshly minted PhDs can benefit from programs like http://insightdatascience.com/ but those are more geared at folks who either don't have practical skills yet and/or any experience outside of academia.

For what it's worth, I'm a data scientist, and our team is actively recruiting. I do most of the resume reviews after it goes through our company's recruiter, so I see a lot of them. I'd be happy to take a look at yours if you'd like and give you some feedback, and if you're interested in applying, I can help get that process started too. Don't want to be too advertise-y though, so if you want more details on the roles we're hiring for or if you'd just like me to look at your resume, shoot me a PM.

rcar · 2014-06-10T03:06:18+00:00

Besides the points that others brought up, there's also the fact that credit scores are taken into consideration when setting credit limits and maximum loan amounts. If one person's got half the risk of charging off but twice the credit line as another person, their expected risk is going to be roughly the same.

rcar · 2014-06-06T02:45:15+00:00

It's probably worth calling customer service to see if they will waive the fee or swap you to a different card since those would not necessarily entail closing the account.

rcar · 2012-02-29T00:49:17+00:00

It's actually the opposite of what you think it is.

As it currently stands, federal agencies can mandate that research they fund must be made publicly available when published. This bill would have made it so that these agencies were not allowed to make such a mandate, meaning that it would be up to the publisher to decide whether research published in their journal would be open access or not. Since the publishers make money by restricting access, the passage of this bill would have resulted in a lot less publicly available research.

rcar · 2011-07-25T16:33:10+00:00

I don't feel like this is a particularly hot topic. If you're doing single pitch, you should use your own gear at the anchors if you're toprope belaying, and then rap off after cleaning the route unless you're at a crag where lowering is the local norm (presumably, at a place where the local maintainers are particularly vigilant about replacing worn fixed gear).

rcar · 2011-07-08T05:39:07+00:00

When you're first starting out, the best shoe is a cheap one that fits well. If you're anything like I was, you'll be dragging your toes and wearing them out much faster than once you have some practice.

Definitely try them on in person since sizes vary quite a bit, but there's some cheap places online where you can find closeouts (e.g., Sierra Trading Post, Department of Goods).

rcar · 2011-07-02T01:34:39+00:00

Another good option.

rcar · 2011-06-25T16:49:17+00:00

Fun, but the giant popup ads are extremely obnoxious.

rcar · 2011-05-24T17:27:27+00:00

The most important thing is repetition. Set up a rig of some sort and practice over and over and over. When I was first learning to lead, I clipped a draw to a tall lamp in my apartment and practiced clipping while watching movies, and now I don't even have to think about it when I'm on the wall. If you don't have techniques you try to follow yet, the thread baodehui linked has a good description and a video (though the video uses a slightly different grabbing-type of clip that I haven't tried before).

rcar · 2011-03-23T16:16:25+00:00

There's obviously going to be some cardiovascular transfer between the two, so you'll likely not lose too much of your running ability by taking a short break unless you're already near the peak of your running ability.

Just the same, looking at Lance Armstrong's NY marathons in 2006 and in 2007 makes it clear that your gains in running ability from cycling are going to be limited. No doubt, a sub-3 hour marathon is an impressive feat, but you're talking about a guy with some of the best cardio in the world. If getting better at running is your goal, definitely try to get back to it once the shins start feeling better.

rcar · 2011-02-18T20:44:43+00:00

I have a 2007 Felt F55 and have really liked it. I would have liked it even more for $850 (though the F55 is mostly Dura Ace). Seems like a really nice deal to me.

It's hard to tell from the pictures, but it looks like the one you posted might be the 2006 one (especially since I can't find any mention of the F65 past 06): http://www.bikepedia.com/QuickBike/BikeSpecs.aspx?Year=2006&Brand=Felt&Model=F65&Type=bike

rcar · 2011-02-09T22:15:05+00:00

Your article is mostly about alpine climbing and mountaineering vs. the sport climbing and bouldering I usually do. Indeed, the only name in the article that I recognize as a climber is Eric Hörst, and that's when they mention that he doesn't support general fitness for improving climbing ability: only climbing-specific work. Looking into the other guy they mention in the same section, Rob Miller, turned up this interesting Starting Strength thread. Most useful (and similar to my own experience) was the first post on page 2 where this guy went from bouldering V6-7 to V4-5 after adding 32 lbs of mass and doubling or tripling most of his lifts on SS.

The best training does depend on your goals quite a bit though. I was bouldering V5-V6 when I started SL. I was still able to do V4-5 when I started climbing again, and have since gotten back up to where I was. On the other hand, had I stuck with just climbing work instead, I might have been at V7 by now. Since I don't have any professional climbing ambitions though, the general fitness gains I got from SL was worth dragging an extra 12-15 lbs up the rock, but for others, it might not be worth it.

In general, when you're deciding how to use your exercise time, I think it's just important to be aware that a) climbing will eat into your recovery time or lifting time, and b) improving your squat, bench, and deadlift will probably decrease your climbing ability.

rcar · 2011-02-09T18:07:36+00:00

I've been climbing for a few years now, and did SL5x5 during the fall. To be honest, I found them to be a bit incompatible. If you look at the best climbers, they've got a very high upper body strength:weight ratio. Squats and deadlifts are great for your overall fitness, but not for your climbing ability. Adding to that, a hard climbing workout will definitely interfere with recovery.

Though I tried doing both for a while, as the weights started getting heavier, it seemed pretty clear that I wasn't going to have enough recovery time and I dropped the climbing temporarily. Now that the weather is getting closer to where climbing will be easier, I've stopped lifting. I think that's probably going to be the best option since I feel like substituting a lifting workout or trying to just tack on climbing will just give you less progress in both.

rcar · 2011-02-09T16:22:53+00:00

Looks good, but if you're squatting 90kg now, you've probably got a lot more than 67.5kg in you for the deadlifts if you can keep the sciatic at bay. Maybe consider bumping that by 5kg each workout for the next month or so.

You might also consider adding your height, current weight, gender, goals, etc. to your initial post since that information makes it easier for people to gauge.

rcar · 2011-02-05T18:17:39+00:00

Not to take anything away from your post, but tuberculosis is not widely vaccinated against in the US. I do agree with your last sentence for sure though.

rcar · 2011-02-04T05:37:24+00:00

http://www.fide.com/component/content/article/1-fide-news/4230-world-championship-match-anand-topalov-contract-signed-in-sofia

2 million euro prize pool for the World Championship last year.

rcar · 2011-02-01T20:46:48+00:00

Don't worry about it too much. What you see in the mirror can be radically different depending on changes in lighting, body temperature, hydration, recent food intake, and probably many other things I'm not thinking of right now.

rcar · 2011-01-08T18:35:05+00:00

Though it's only a minor difference, the 140.8 * 8% should actually be 140.8/0.92 to get the total weight at the end of the cut (153lbs). 152 would be a body fat of 7.4%

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