There's this wonderful article I want to share on building prediction models using ensembles. "Ensembles" in this case simply means the combination of two or more prediction models. I'd personally had great success bringing several (relatively) poorly performing models together into one ensemble model, with prediction accuracy far greater than any of the models individually.... Continue Reading →
The net is set for the fish
The following passage is taken from the beautiful book Master of the Three Ways by Hing Ying Ming (which libraries might classify as "Eastern Philosophy"): The net is set for the fish, But catches the swan in its mesh. The praying mantis covets its prey, While the sparrow approaches from the rear. Within one contrivance hides... Continue Reading →
Developing a Culture
Seth Godin wrote a wonderful post on how we sometimes need an external push (through laws, policies, cultural guardrails) to do what's best for us. It can be basically summed up by the following statements (from the post): We know that wearing a bicycle helmet can save us from years in the hospital, but some... Continue Reading →
Long vs. Short-term: Doing what needs to be done
There is a huge difference in working with a team that you know will be with you for only a single project and a team that you know will be with you for still many more. When you're working with a team that you know will be with you for a long time, you may... Continue Reading →
Ship Already
I've written about shipping before: the act of delivering a product; an article; a report; a piece of art. You can have the best ideas in the world, but if you don't ship, they're worth as much a ton of gold at the bottom of a rubbish heap. "We don't know if the data's 100% right -... Continue Reading →
Tell me what you want to see
Caught this magnificent optical illusion on kottke.org today. I'd say that is definitely this is worth a minute or two of your time. Was in my "data" frame of mind when I watched this, and couldn't help thinking that this is exactly how data works: control the content, control the angle (i.e. perception), and you can make a... Continue Reading →
The Loss of Sales Conversion “Efficiency”
Let me admit right off the bat that the post today contains less original thought of mine and more myself reminding my future self on a fact I always intuitively knew about but never saw documented anywhere: that in a sales funnel, an increase of in an earlier stage of the funnel quite naturally lends... Continue Reading →
The problem with fighting fires
The problem with fighting fires, day after day, is that there's no time for anything else. Sometimes, you just have to step back and observe. To think; to plan; to conquer. That's not going to happen while you're fighting fires. Sometimes, you have to lose the battle to win the war.
Expensive Software and Consultants
They took our data, ran it through their software, and they got the answers that eluded us for so long. I was told they were a big consulting company, which meant they probably had great, restrictively expensive software that could do the job. That's why. But I don't buy that argument. Great software needn't be... Continue Reading →
Business Implications of Analysis
"And," she said, "we found that the more rooms a hotel has, the higher the positive rating." I was at NUS (National University of Singapore) in my Master's class -- listening to my peers present their analysis on the relationship between hotel class (e.g. budget, mid-scale and luxury) and the ratings of several key attributes... Continue Reading →
Donn, fragments 