Author: Kenneth

  • The Incredible Lightness of Hybrid Work

    Kenneth

    There was a 40-day period this Spring when I spent most of my time in the NICU at a children’s hospital. The sights, sounds, and smell of the place will forever be etched into my memory. The wonderful people too. Important things happened there, things with real consequences for the rest of my life and… Read more

  • Tiger Tiger

    Kenneth

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    One of my last projects when I was at the RAND Corporation involved leading a small tiger team. We were charged with identifying innovative opportunities for helping Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricanes Irma and Maria. There were a few other tiger teams, each with slightly different Strategic Objectives. We had fun, open, and… Read more

  • Tripping the Light Fantastic

    Kenneth

    There are numerous blog posts, books, and research articles highlighting the importance of narrative identity, the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves. I have recently been thinking about my narrative identity, both how it relates to Data Science and how it relates to my future. My Narrative Allow me to indulge in a bit of… Read more

  • Data Science Stakeholder Management

    Kenneth

    I previously wrote about two Data Scientist pain points: the thrash, when you’re not sure what to work on next, and the slightly toxic coworker. But my slack messages and 1:1 meetings are full of complaints that are not covered by either of these scenarios. My coworkers and I complain about challenging interactions with stakeholders. Requests and… Read more

  • Bard, Baudrillard, and the RTO

    Kenneth

    I love a good fad and thinking about the future. I also work in an organization called Applied AI. Naturally, I have been fascinated by the recent advances in generative AI. This feels like the most interesting thing to happen in tech in awhile. Generative AI immediately makes me think of Baudrillard’s Simulacra and Simulation.… Read more

  • Maturity Levels of OR Projects

    Kenneth

    We recently went through a re-org in my organization. I am now horizontal, responsible for raising the bar on all things Operations Research in our corner of the world. This is a pretty ideal role for me. I get to learn a lot, focus on math, and act as a force multiplier. I previously worked for… Read more

  • The Magic of Operations Research

    Kenneth

    I was recently asked to speak for 2 to 3 minutes at our All Hands meeting, to summarize progress on my main project over the past year. I looked up some metrics and made some quick comparisons. The results are … interesting. The Comparison I work on Assortment Optimization. We are developing a tool for internal… Read more

  • Category II Toxicity

    Kenneth

    My last post was about one of the bugbears of data scientists, the thrash. Another hobgoblin is the somewhat toxic manager, coworker, or workplace. There’s a lot of content out there already about toxicity in the workplace and what to do about it. I’ll try to point out what’s different in data science and offer my somewhat cynical take on things.… Read more

  • The Thrash

    Kenneth

    My colleague called it the thrash. It is one of the worst parts of life as a Senior Data Scientist (DS). You don’t know what to work on next. The ideas from the Product Manager (PM) are missing, vague, or technically naive. The ideas on the Quarterly Business Plan (QBP), in the backlog, or being discussed… Read more

  • How Data Scientists Are Evaluated

    Kenneth

    I joined medium to write about transportation but my post about the Data Science Interview Process was my most read post by far. This is a similar post about how you might be evaluated as a Data Scientist at a tech company. As before, I’ll add in personal anecdotes, focus on what I wish I had known… Read more