AI, Steaks, and Framing Nailers
Work - Like about everyone I talk to, I’ve been trying to get my arms around AI. I’ve completed a Specialization in Machine Learning by Stanford University Online, Deeplearning.ai and Andrew Ng. My goal with this specialization is to understand the most popular underlying methods of machine learning as a basis for understanding the paths to harnessing AI in technology products and within the corporate workspace more generally. This specialization is served by Coursera and is very reasonably priced. I haven’t taken a technical, math oriented course in a very long time, and am amazed with the very supportive examples provided through math and ML packages and the packaging in python execution notebooks. No calculators required!!!
For those with an interest in AI applications in financial markets, I also found the following article to be quite helpful “Can Machines ‘learn’ Finance?”. I know that others have been honing their skills by spending time interacting generally with ChatGPT and other natural language processing tools. I’m also interested in people’s experiences are with Windows Copilot which starts to deploy at scale this month. I’m putting a piece together to try to add some structure for my continued learning, and will share it here when I can.
Hobbies and Fishing - I did some construction framing for the first time in my life, enclosing the basement windows and doors in the barn I’m building. There’s more to it than I thought, and I was very happy with the product, although with all the re-work I did, an observer might think it was my job to cut large dimensional lumber pieces into smaller ones and to throw them into the garbage pile. It’s also the first time I’ve used a real nail gun, and it’s been fun.
If the weather holds up I’m going to try my hand at casting a concrete hearth. Until recently, I didn’t know that crafty concrete casting was even a thing. Here’s a good video summary. I’ll report back next month.
Fishing - Here in the US North east, Fall is upon us. What others may describe as a very wet summer was awesome, at least for the trout and trout streams near me. My youngest son Sean and I snuck off to Northern Maine to fly fish for Landlocked Salmon and Brook Trout the weekend before he started his first real job. We roughed it, kind of, in a cabin without electric but with propane. The camping highlight was cooking a big beef t-bone (his), and a smaller bison t-bone (mine) over an open flame. As for the fishing, Sean somehow avoided my advice and developed a beautiful cast. I think we ended up with about the same number of fish caught and released.
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