I love summers, but not for the reason you'd think. I don't particularly like hot weather and prefer a good coffee shop to a
beach resort. For me, a good summer will always mean what they meant during my Ph.D.: four months to grind your heart
out -- to read 500 journal articles, submit five research papers, or finish that one big project. It is a time when the burden of
daily responsibilities and thousand little emergencies lifts and you are free to work on big projects with big goals -- to enter
the chill of fall better, smarter, and farther than before.
I left academia and if there is one thing I miss, it is the summers. The demand for new sales and product releases never lets
up and nature of work makes August feel much like February. Over the years I have noticed that being in that environment
has made me reach less in personal goals. I took on smaller personal projects, read fewer books, and slowly gained weight. I
don't regret this drift. Effort is zero-sum and I was focused on other things including a starting an AI company
(http://newknowledge.io/). However, this summer I am going back to the summers of my Ph.D.: a summer of machine
learning.
From June 1st to September 30th I will make a four month sprint to become a better data scientist and machine learning
engineer, filling the dog days of summer with reading, writing, coding, and running. And the finish line? Eight concrete,
quantifiable goals for the next 122 days:
https://chrisalbon.com/blog/summer_of_machine_learning.html 1/2
6/22/2017 Summer Of Machine Learning - Blog
8. Lose 40lbs.
#SummerOfMachineLearning:Data
Goal 200 100 20 300 504 100 500 150
Progress 1.33 4 1 5 0 8 35.43 0
Date Day Tutorials Lectures(Hours) Books Flashcards Posts Recipes Miles Fasting Weight Notes
Firstweighin.ReadingEssentialMathematicsforPoliticaland
6/1/17 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 7.35 190
SocialResearch.Therundestroyedme.
ReadingEssentialMathematicsforPoliticalandSocial
6/2/17 2 0 0 0 1 0 0 5.24 186.6
Research.Feltmuchbetteraftertoday'srun.
ReadingEssentialMathematicsforPoliticalandSocial
6/3/17 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Research.PackforNairobi.
6/4/17 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 FlyingtoKenya.
6/5/17 5 0 2 1 0 0 0 0 InKenya.FinishedAlgorithmsToLiveBy.
InKenya.ReadingEssentialMathematicsforPoliticalandSocial
6/6/17 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Research.
InKenya.ReadingEssentialMathematicsforPoliticalandSocial
6/7/17 7 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Research.
InKenya.ReadingEssentialMathematicsforPoliticalandSocial
6/8/17 8 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Research.
FlyingbacktoUS.ReadingEssentialMathematicsforPolitical
6/9/17 9 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
andSocialResearch.
6/10/17 10 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 FlyingbacktoUS.
Cleaninghouse.Norealweightprogress,likelyduetoKenya
6/11/17 11 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 185.7
trip.
ReadingEssentialMathematicsforPoliticalandSocial
6/12/17 12 0 0 0 3 0 0 0
Research.
ReadingEssentialMathematicsforPoliticalandSocial
6/13/17 13 0 1 0 0 0 0 6.48
Research.
6/14/17 14 0 1 0 0 0 1 6.1 Backonthewritingtrain.
6/15/17 15 0 0 0 0 0 1 5.13 190 Backonthewritingtrain.
6/16/17 16 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Backonthewritingtrain.
6/17/17 17 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 WeekendOff.
6/18/17 18 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 WeekendOff.
Editingfirstthreechapters.Startedintermittantfasting.Ran.
6/19/17 19 0.33 0 0 0 0 1 5.13 20.5
RecordingPartiallyDerivativeepisode.Editedandposted.
Seconddayofintermittantfasting.Finallygettingbacktobook
6/20/17 20 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 21
writing.107Foutside,sorunningisn'tlikelytohappen.
6/21/17 21 0 0 0 0 0 1 0
6/22/17 22 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
6/23/17 23 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
6/24/17 24 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
6/25/17 25 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
6/26/17 26 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
6/27/17 27 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
>
Data
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https://chrisalbon.com/blog/summer_of_machine_learning.html 2/2