Posts on Zach Nielsen's Blog

Parenting Tips

Thu, 19 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

As one of the first people in my friend group to have a kid, I’ve been wanting to put something together for folks who just found out. It’s such a significant life change with loads of information to absorb, and I find it weirdly comforting that countless generations before us figured it out. Plus, we have Google now. Fair warning: sample size of one here. Every baby is a special snowflake, and what worked for us might not work for you. But hopefully some of this is useful. The way I think about the first few months: you survive, then you thrive. The first six weeks you’re just holding on for dear life no matter the kid. Then it gets better. And eventually, it actually gets fun.

Bunkhouse Logic

Fri, 24 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The Spirit of the Cowboy

Reading Bunkhouse Logic by Ben Stein in high school was a fantastic book. It’s a bit old school; similiar to How to Win Friends and Influence People, it references people in a first name last initial in vague jobs who are now “experts in their field” to add their opinions in. But behind all of that lies a ton of great advice. I wanted to write all of the rules down with my thoughts for future reference.

Stratechery Universe

Mon, 06 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Alex Albert had a great challenge on X; with the launch of Claude Sonnet 4.5, who could build the coolest thing with Sonnet 4.5 in just a few days.

What I built: An interactive 3D visualization that maps 13 years of Stratechery articles as a explorable galaxy. Each article is a star - sized by influence (PageRank), colored by topic, positioned by relationships. Click any article to explore its connections across Ben Thompson’s intellectual universe.

Blog Meta Analysis

Tue, 05 Aug 2025 11:57:12 -0700

Turning the analytical lens on my own blog - nine years of content, themes, and intellectual evolution mapped through data.

Anthropic's Marketing Plan

Mon, 16 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Anthropic has the best coding model in the world ¹, and nobody knows it. That’s not a technical problem, it’s a marketing problem.

Overall I’ll attempt to do my best Ben Thompson impression - they’re right in the middle of trying to be a platform, yet also an aggregator. Below I’ll go over some areas of success and opportunities that they have.

The Aggregator Approach -> Becoming the Go to coding/writing LLM tool

Anthropic runs Claude and Claude Code. It depends on who you ask, but Claude has one of, if not the top coding model in Opus 4 and Sonnet 4. Claude Code is their command line tool, which uses the Claude models to work through your directory and write code programmatically. Again, it’s tough to really know for sure, but Claude Code is definitely a top power tool, with the integration between model and tooling becoming more and more powerful.

Three Low-Hanging Computer-Vision Features Zillow Should Ship Tomorrow

Wed, 11 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Zillow quietly hosts the biggest labeled photo dataset in U.S. real-estate history: 100+ M listings × ~30 photos each ≈ 3 B images—all GPS-tagged, time-stamped, and paired with MLS text. Yet the core UI still looks like 2012 Craigslist. With a sprinkle of computer vision¹, Zillow could unlock new filters (no pool, no carpet, cul-de-sac), a per-listing similarity score, greatly increasing user engagement for just cents per image.

Increased Filtering Capability:

For a quick win, Zillow should add the following filters:

Introduction to PodDigests.com

Mon, 14 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

As part of my approach to thinking better, I’ve been exploring ways to consume podcasts more effectively. While I enjoy actively listening to many podcasts, there are others where I want to capture the key insights without dedicating the time to the full segment.

Enter LLMs. These models can now transcribe audio content, which can then be processed for analysis.

The most powerful feature I’ve discovered is automated insight generation. When a new podcast episode is detected, the system automatically generates up to five key questions, distilling an hour-long episode into a few paragraphs. This approach transforms lengthy content into digestible units of knowledge that can be easily referenced and remixed later.

Knock Knock Jokes for Kids Post Forma

Tue, 11 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

With a lot of projects in the pipeline, I want to start doing an analysis on why I close the door on certain projects. Today’s focus is going to be KnockKnockJokesForKids.com

Background

My idea for KnockKnockJokesForKids came from Build the Keyword, which focuses on keywords with minimal search competition but decent traffic. I thought it was a great idea, and knocked out a decent rough draft with AI in a week or so. I used AI to build out all of the jokes, and Replit to launch.

LLM Development Workflow Example

Fri, 28 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

So I was checking out Harper Reed’s article on using AI for coding and it’s super practical. His non-TDD workflow is broken down into three main phases:

Idea Honing Reed kicks things off with ChatGPT 4o/o3 using this exact prompt:

“Ask me one question at a time so we can develop a thorough, step-by-step spec for this idea. Each question should build on my previous answers, and our end goal is to have a detailed specification I can hand off to a developer. Let’s do this iteratively and dig into every relevant detail. Remember, only one question at a time. Here’s the idea: [YOUR IDEA HERE]”

What 10th Place on Product Hunt Did for My Free Product

Sun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Working through Product Hunt

What is a Cover Letter in 2023

Mon, 09 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Applying to jobs in 2023 and beyond has never been more challenging. The ubiquity of online applications means many hopeful candidates face rejection without ever receiving feedback. From the company’s perspective, especially for remote positions, they’re inundated with applications, many from unqualified candidates. This makes it increasingly difficult to identify and interview the most deserving individuals. This systemic inefficiency underscores the importance of a well-crafted cover letter.

What is a cover letter?

A cover letter is typically a one-page document addressed to the hiring manager, offering a more in-depth perspective on your resume. It elaborates on why you’re an ideal candidate for the position. Prospective employees should align their qualifications and experiences with the job requirements, incorporating relevant anecdotes that demonstrate their fit. While it’s best to address the letter to the hiring manager by name, generic salutations such as “To Whom it May Concern” remain acceptable.

Upper Funnel Marketing

Tue, 23 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000

With the impending shift of ‘Cookiegeddon’, it’s crucial to revisit our marketing strategies and gauge their efficacy. In the realm of advertising, we’re particularly focusing on how to cater to clients’ needs and quantify the overall effectiveness of advertising campaigns.

Marketing Strategies

A commonly used metaphor for marketing strategy is a ‘funnel’ divided into three sections: the upper, middle, and lower tiers. As you move from the top to the bottom of the funnel, evaluating the cost-effectiveness of media spends becomes progressively difficult.

Unlocking Your Daily Potential with GPT-4: A Comprehensive Guide on OpenAI for Coding

Thu, 18 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The transformative power of AI is undeniable, and the latest iteration of OpenAI’s GPT model, GPT-4, is testament to that fact. The model has taken monumental strides in code generation, opening up a myriad of possibilities for everyday coding projects. This article explores the most effective ways to utilize this robust AI model in day-to-day coding tasks.

GPT-4 offers several distinct improvements over its predecessor, GPT-3. Notably, its code output has been enhanced significantly, making it an ideal assistant for a variety of coding tasks. However, to make the most of GPT-4, one needs to apply a focused approach.

Opinionated guide to using excel

Fri, 14 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Excel and I have a strange history. For being so into data, it actually took until my first job where I learned how to use Excel on a regular basis. Based on these opinionated Django rules

All excel sheets should be read from left to right
I would also have my most readable file on the left, followed by a pivot table, followed by the raw data.
No hidden rows or columns
No sub summations within a data structure
Formulas should be written in row above headers, to easily be pasted down
An excel sheet should have all data in one worksheet
No spaces in the data. Whole thing should be navigated with control, shift, arrows
Different data blocks should be split by one row and/or one column
Grid and bold headers. Often color yellow (traditional bumblebee approach)
Calculated fields should not exist in pivot tables. All columns should be a part of a data row, for readability
Graphing should be done using another tool (i.e. python, tableau)

Assorted Unordered Notes re:Customer Acquisition

Mon, 16 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

As I’ve been spending more time in Marketing Analytics, I’ve been revisiting some earlier ideas about customer acquisition. One framework to do so is the idea of growth loops from Kevin Kwok. Below are some unsorted ideas on marketing and customer acquisition in particular.

Sales should be a first-class citizen and some loop should be built into the product.
Sales and growth can’t do much without retention or a working product.
Depending on how great an engineering department can be, having a tight feedback loop with customer feedback can be a superpower.
It’s a fascinating time for marketing analytics. The entire framework of being able to attribute sales back to a specific campaign is gone, and it’s not coming back any time soon. All of the smart people that I talk to seem to focus on building a Mixed Media Model (MMM) or a Multi-Touch Attribution Model (MTA) which isn’t wrong, but I think still have fundamental problems. It truly has been amazing to watch everyone in marketing shrug and throw up their hands.
A strong Test and Learn strategy, using Prep/Post Test versus Control, is the best way to show incrementality within marketing.
Personally, I’m still not a big believer in display advertising, but I haven’t seen anything compelling to prove or disprove my point.

To put a bow on the problem, engineering can truly catapult marketing to the moon. Attribution is also a difficult problem to solve without using statistical techniques or intensive SQL.

Analyzing Rotten Tomatoes

Thu, 07 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000

I became interested in examining divisive movie ratings between audience and critics. Specifically, Rotten Tomatoes has two metrics for rating movies: the audience score and the critic’s score. I wanted to take the data and pull out what are the films with the largest difference between these two scores. To put it a different way, I wanted to examine what are the movies that the audience loves but the critic hates, and what are the movies that the critics love but the audience hates.

GPT Update

Sat, 30 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Circling back from my initial thoughts on GPT-3, I’ve come across the great work that EleutherAI has been working on and I wanted to note it below for posterity.

EleutherAI defines itself as a “grassroots collective of researchers working to open-source AI research.” They currently have two main models available - GPT-J, a 6 Billion parameter model, and GPT-NeoX-20B, a 20 Billion parameter model. For reference, GPT-3 is ~175 Billion parameters. EleutherAI is currently working on releasing a model the size of GPT-3.

Using an iPad for Real Work

Fri, 23 Jul 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Listening to episode 433 of the Accidental Tech Podcast (ATP), John had an excellent point about actually not knowing what would make iPadOS great for power users. Thinking about what would make an iPad a tool for real work, I came across two main things.

The ability to run Python
The ability to record a podcast either live or over the web

As someone who programs regularly, having the ability to get a complete programming environment would be great to better accomplish “real work,” i.e., what I do during the day. Specifically, getting an Anaconda installation to perform some initial data analysis would be great.

First Hugo Post

Thu, 21 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

This post is my attempt to document setting up a Hugo blog from scratch. And I’m honestly pretty excited by it!

I’m going off of Pakstech’s great tutorial. Web development usually gives me hives, but we’ll see how this goes.

The only thought I wanted to take down for now is why move to Hugo?

My time with Pelican

I first got started blogging with Static Site Generators using Pelican in 2016 (how the time flies!). Pelican has been great for me, but there were a few things now that had me looking around at the landscape.

Why aren't Working Hours more Flexible?

Sun, 10 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Who wouldn’t prefer more flexible hours?

FTC Suing Facebook - Initial Reactions

Thu, 10 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

It’s been exciting to watch the reactions to the FTC suing Facebook. I especially thought Ben Thompson’s post today was well written. I do agree with most everything he says, so apologies for quoting him at length:

First off, I would prefer a world where the deal didn’t happen. As I have noted I believe that absent a deal there would be more competition in the advertising space, and more consumer-focused startups.

On Being a Link in the Chain

Thu, 10 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Great post from Austin Kleon about why he writes. The whole thing is worth reading, but I’m going to pull out one section:

Karl Lagerfield died this week, and he said: “Books are a hard-bound drug with no danger of an overdose. I am the happy victim of books.” If books are drugs, then maybe my books are just gateway drugs that lead to better ones. I’m more than okay with that!

Quitting Social Media

Tue, 01 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

I feel like it’s now all the rage to be quitting social media. First, I read the excellent book Digital Minimalism, followed by a great interview with Yes Theory. And then yet another sign that I should do this is reading Rands’s most recent article, The Builders High. So I guess I’m going to delete social media from my phone and see how it goes?

And so what does that mean? I’m never really on Facebook, and I’ve aged out of Snapchat. My two big vices are Instagram and Twitter, and I’ve deleted both of those from my phone. Twitter is still available in the web browser, and I’ll try to be writing more via the indie web. Instagram is a black hole, and I will do my best to stay away from it.

A Better Text Editor

Thu, 17 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

I ended up writing yesterday, and it was a pretty productive session; roughly 2k words in 45 minutes or so. This was a terrific performance for me; usually, I don’t write anything near that quickly. The secret to my success was by using GPT-3. I would put together some linking statements, sending the mix to GPT-3, and then pasting what it returns. Edit a little and keep going.

How was I able to do this?

I was going over the tools on how to accomplish this best and was shocked that it was actually on an iPhone/iPad. With tools like Drafts, Shortcuts, and Scriptable, it was pretty easy to put together a tool where I can select some text, send that to GPT-3 using Scriptable, and paste that text into my working document. It was a pretty fun way to break writer’s block - I would get stuck in a paragraph and look to get some text to keep moving. What was most shocking to me was that I would not know how to create a similar workflow on my laptop. The available tools on an iPhone made this possible, which I frankly found shocking.

First thoughts with GPT-3

Fri, 14 Aug 2020 00:00:00 +0000

I recently received access to one of the hottest betas in tech - access to GPT-3. I’ve had a chance to play around with it and wanted to note down some first impressions.

The onboarding is well designed. There’s a playground option that automatically completes any text you enter, making it great for non-techies.
Additionally, I’d recommend watching the onboarding videos on how to design prompts. You can make magic happen, but it sometimes takes a second to get the prompt right.
The staff has been great at answering questions.
As has been mentioned before, it’s essential to think about the second-degree effects that come with people being to generate text of any type. Yes, it’s not revolutionary, but how much text needs to be? Most SEO articles just need to hit a word count as an example.
The module (in my experience) struggles somewhat with longer-form text. There’s been talk on how this is due to the limited memory of the module, but I wouldn’t plan on using this for pages of text.
Additionally, the model is much better at nonfiction than fiction. I think this is because there’s less fiction text out there. This is where I see the best opportunity is to fine tune the model.

I plan on posting a development post using GPT-3 at some point but wanted to write down my thoughts. I believe that this model is the start of something massive. I’ve had pretty great results with minimal cherry-picking and already can’t wait for GPT-4.

Trading Options in Robinhood

Sat, 04 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Robinhood has long been my tool for playfully trading stocks as seen in a prior article. The UI is playful. Even though Robinhood is using shady tactics to make money, I find it a great way to get started with investing.

Trading options has always seemed like a way to magnify your earnings potential; it allows you to trade more with the money you have available, as opposed to simply buying stocks. I have a Robinhood account but have never put in the effort to learn, until now.

Intro to Roam Research

Thu, 02 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Like much of the smart internet, I’ve recently fallen in love with [[Roam Research]]. It’s one of the first “Everything Brain” apps that has vibed with how I think about and use apps on a day to day basis. Here, I want to put down some thoughts on how I use it and the easiest ways to get started with it.

First, who am I? I’d say that I am a vague member of the technocracy, but I often struggle with popular apps. In other words, I read Ben Thompson and follow Patrick McKenzie on twitter, but don’t understand Notion and am not the Target Demographic for Superhuman. My goal here is a rough “Here’s how to get started in a sustainable way, which you can build on with the whizzy features later.”

Rules from The Paladin Prophecy

Sun, 28 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

A recent game changer for my reading habit has been setting up Libby. Libby is a service that allows for ebook downloads from your local library. It’s really allowed me to work through some fun Sci-fi and Fantasy books, without paying for instant download via Kindle (which is dangerous to get used to).

One book that I really enjoyed was The Paladin Prophecy, by Mark Frost. It’s solidly Young Adult, but a classic well-written adventure. Throughout the book, the protagonist cites rules created by his father to live by. I wanted to save those, so I have them written below.

Coding as a Super Power

Fri, 24 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000

My overall thesis for this piece is that trivial amounts of programming in non-engineering areas can lead to tremendous amounts of value. Additionally, I think we (including myself here as a part of the Technocracy) often forget about this. Too often, I think we forget that most of the population deals with horrid UIs, sending emails with attachments (Excel or Powerpoints) back and forth. Below, I’ll brainstorm a few options on easy ways programming can add value to different parts of the organization. Most of this is going to be inspired by Patrick McKenzie, whose writing I highly recommend.

Third Order Effects of Covid-19

Mon, 06 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000

What I think is going to be interesting with Covid-19 are the third order effects. That is, the thing that gets affected way down the line, because the inputs are in disarray from dealing with Covid. For example, in order to protect teams, all of the major sports get cancelled. This then, affects sports betting (hard to bet on sports not being played currently). That then leads to a pent up demand on something to gamble on, which boosts adoption of eSports.

Looking at Vegas Local Restaurants

Sun, 05 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000

During this whole Covid-19 thing, I was trying to think of a way that I could help. Luckily I came across this project by Jeff Triplett - it’s a way to highlight any major local restaurants. Luckily it’s on github, so I forked the project and starting throwing in my old data. There were a few technical lessons along the way, but I’m optimistic to be putting something out there to help our small businesses in the valley. Those will be below, but I’d appreciate it if you were to go to the site and enter your favorite local restaurant, if you’re a vegas local!

Introduction to Pandas

Sun, 22 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Basic Introduction to Pandas - Five Commands Everyone should know

Having Multiple Tables in SQL View

Wed, 12 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000

In my continued SQL adventures, I’ve been experimenting with creating views in SQL. SQL Views are awesome, because once they are accessed they rerun the code, which repulls the data. This is awesome because it refreshes anything connected to it. So for example, if I have a Tableau Dashboard hooked up to a SQL View, every time someone logs onto Tableau and accesses the Dashboard it, it’ll pull the correct, most up to date data.

Layover in Houston

Mon, 23 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000

I recently had a layover in Houston at the IAH airport and wanted to write down some quick thoughts:

The airport is really nice. Found out from this post about how many people come through yearly (40 million travelers. 40 million!!) and the amount of work they put into it shows. All of the food places look incredible.
I ended up flying United, and in their terminal there’s a feature where you get points for buying at shops if you scan your boarding pass. It really is a great way to solve the information problem of what exactly happens after I get off my flight. I heard this same struggle from someone at Ticketmaster at Sloan this past year. Although computer vision is going to get better and better, this solves the opt in problem quite nicely.
IAH is also massive. Would recommend sticking on one airline if the layover is narrow.

Practice is Better than Talent

Thu, 28 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000

I really enjoyed this piece by Robert Mays about Josh Allen, the Bills QB. There were really two arts that stuck out to me: one was hearing about how he was talented in several sports in high school. He seems to think it’s a reason why he struggled in his first year, when the book Range suggests that it could be why he’s succeeding.

The second is about how he really committed to getting better on intermediate throws, and how it’s really paid off. From the piece:

Parable of the Pots

Sat, 05 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000

One fun story that I enjoy thinking about is what I call the pottery parable. The supposed story goes that a pottery teacher has two students. On Monday he tells the first student: “Your job this week is to try to create one perfect pot. Spend as much time as you need. Make it perfect.” Then he tells the second student: “Your job this week is to make as many pots as possible. I don’t care if they’re nice. Crank ‘em out.” Then on Friday, he comes back. What does he find?

Filtering based off a prefiltered list in SQL

Sat, 28 Sep 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Having been able to write more SQL in the past week, I came across a great piece of code that I want to save for future use.

I wanted to find all transactions that was part of a specific list in order to do market basket analysis from those specific entries.

One easy way to do that is to grab all of the transaction IDs into a temp table, and then use that temp table in a Where clause, selecting from the original data set.

Updating your tools

Sat, 28 Sep 2019 00:00:00 +0000

With all of the fancy tech productivity apps that have come out (Notion, slack, etc) I feel like my life is still stuck in 2011 in a lot of ways.

As someone who is “good with computers” there isn’t a ton of whiz bang technology to keep my daily life focused.

I do think that’s partly due to the fact that I don’t have that much to do (by design) but it’s something to think about and improve moving forward

Streaming Dynamics

Fri, 27 Sep 2019 00:00:00 +0000

There’s been a lot of talk recently about Netflix - the first earning share in quite some time, Netflix losing access to the Office and Friends in the not too distant future, and what it means when we don’t own any of our media. Overall, I think it’s going to lead to a few unknown factors.

The gold rush for rights

Much has been written about how Netflix got great content deals before other media companies became aware of their valuable content. NBC selling Friends and The Office, Disney sold the rights to The Avengers to Netflix for an extensive check, the number of examples continues to grow. Netflix was able to leverage that foothold into people’s subconscious into checking out their media. For example, one could imagine a customer saying, “I’m already paying eight bucks for Friends; let’s check out Orange Is the New Black.”

Digital Minimalism Review

Sun, 04 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Recently I picked up Digital Minimalism, by Cal Newport. It was a great read, but I want to talk about some things that I took from this book. Below are some takeaways I had for this book. As he mentions about writing on pg 125, “it’s the act of writing itself that already yields the bulk of the benefits.”

I thought Newport made a fascinating point on a well-developed leisure life

… You’re more likely to succeed in reducing the role of digital tools in your life if you cultivate high-quality alternatives to the easy distraction they provide. For many people, their compulsive phone use papers over a void created by a lack of a well-developed leisure life.

Things to do in Boston

Thu, 18 Jul 2019 00:00:00 +0000

As a vaguely established Boston local, I often have people visiting who need to be entertained. To assist in this process, I’ve been putting together this list over the past year. Each of these options are worth trying, and I hope this helps anyone looking for things to do in Boston.

Food

Buttermilk and bourbon
Worden Hall - Southie

By ICA/Harbor

Harpoon Brewery and Beer Hall
ICA
Brattle book store
Commonwealth books
Blue Dragon (food)

Cambridge

Harvard Tour (Call Beforehand)
MIT
Graffiti Alley
Harvard/MIT musuems
Myung Dong 1st Ave (Karaoke)
The smoke shop
Bagelsaurus (Life changing)

North End

I AM books
Improv
The Printing Office of Edes & Gill
Mike’s/Modern’s Pastry
Paul Revere’s house/north church
Captain Jackson’s Historic Chocolate Shop
Ernesto’s
Green dragon/Bell in Hand
Faneuil hall (Look for the Boston massacre plaque!) Pro tip: Coming out of Mike’s pastry, turn left. A blockish down is a nice grassy area to consume the pastry. From there, you can catch the freedom trail to Paul Revere’s house/Faneuil hall

Misc

Bunker hill memorial
Oyster House
Zoo
Bully Boy
Plymouth (somewhat of a drive)

Living in a Brain Hub

Sat, 13 Jul 2019 00:00:00 +0000

From a terrific look about how Virginia Won Amazon’s HQ2

“Highly educated workers, Moretti concluded, have become the knowledge economy’s most precious resource. “In the twentieth century, competition was about accumulating physical capital,” he wrote. “Today it is about attracting the best human capital.” But these college and graduate-school degree holders are not dispersed evenly throughout the country. Instead, they’ve been clustering in a handful of already-thriving cities—places like San Francisco, Raleigh, Minneapolis, and Boston—which, as a result, have also become magnets for forward-looking employers.

Municipal Broadband

Fri, 12 Jul 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Wired internet in America is not good. Run by terrible monopolistic companies, it is a service no one likes dealing with, that is being left behind by the rest of the world.

Roughly 75% of the country can only get internet from Comcast or TWC. Comcast has the distinct privilege of being ranked one of the worst customer service companies in America (Ranked #1 from the American Consumer Satisfaction Index). These companies can get away with this behavior because there often isn’t another place to turn.

Process and the Art of Handoff

Mon, 17 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0000

With every task I do in the workplace, it’s crucial to think about the end state. If I’m taking this project on, and it does not have a defined end point, is this going to be something that will be my job forever? If not, eventually this task is going to be handed off to someone else. The question then becomes how is that task going to be successfully handed off.

Useful SQL Examples

Thu, 13 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0000

The hardest (and most boring!) part of any code is the initial work it takes to learn something - solving the first problem allows you to move on to solving more interesting problems.

With regards to coding, I’ve found that it’s good to have some boilerplate code to solve common problems: I won’t remember how to find duplicates off the top of my head, so having code to refer back to is super useful.

Electric Scooters in DC: My first Micromobility Experience

Thu, 16 May 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Consider the following points:

50% of people’s rides are less than 12 miles. Of that, a majority fall under 4.
A car is one of the biggest financial burdens people buy. They’re expensive and sit idle for most of the time.
Urbanization means that by 2040, a 50% of people are going to live in 8 cities.
Traffic is only going to get worse
Electric scooters are fun as heck to ride.

All of these points means that parking and life in cities is going to be at a premium, and that we’re going to need more ways to be transported around cities. And I think electric scooters are going to be the way that we do that.

Micromobility and Culture

Wed, 15 May 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Micromobility scooter operators, acting first and asking questions later, went where they could get away with it. That, paradoxically, was the U.S. California in particular.

With the idea taking root, much confusion followed: Should this idea be banned? Should it be controlled? Does the idea shed light on other inequities?

These are all cultural questions, and fundamentally, transportation and culture are deeply linked. What micromobility has done, at least, in its short existence, is throw light on our invisible assumptions about transportation. On car dependency. On parking subsidies. On vast over-service of automobility. On bundling of trips in one big metal box.

Morning Routines

Wed, 27 Mar 2019 00:00:00 +0000

I really enjoyed this post about morning routines and how to work efficiently. The author makes a great point that knowledge work isn’t fit for an 8 hour consistent work day. The killer line is below:

For best results: Spend 20% of your energy on your work and 80% of your energy on recovery and self-improvement. When you’re getting high-quality recovery, you’re growing. When you’re continually honing your mental-model, the quality and impact of your work continually increase. This is what psychologists call, “Deliberate Practice.” It’s not about doing more, but better training. It’s about being strategic and results-focused, not busyness-focused.

Markdown Syntax Guide

Mon, 11 Mar 2019 00:00:00 +0000

This article offers a sample of basic Markdown syntax that can be used in Hugo content files, also it shows whether basic HTML elements are decorated with CSS in a Hugo theme.

Placeholder Text

Sat, 09 Mar 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Lorem est tota propiore conpellat pectoribus de pectora summo.

Emoji Support

Tue, 05 Mar 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Emoji can be enabled in a Hugo project in a number of ways.

Building Motivation

Mon, 18 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.”

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Something that I’ve been thinking about more and more - instead of focusing on process, focus on the results. Focus on the end state and not on the work to get to the end state.

What are you optimizing for?

Wed, 13 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

You can be wrong on a lot of decisions if you are really right on a few huge ones. Optimize for the magnitude of your good decisions, not the percentage of the time you are right.

Sam Altman

Submodules in Github

Tue, 12 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

While following my annual tradition of redesigning my blog, I realized that I want continuous deployment - the easiest way to do that seems to be with Netify.

One aspect of that is uploading all of my files to Github. From there, Netify will grab that and then trigger a redeployment. Pretty easy.

Except I kept getting this error, regarding my .gitmodule file. After digging in, I realized that I had copied over the pelican-themes and pelican-plugins folders from other github accounts - I had to make sure that they were listed properly. After more fiddling, I removed them and then added them back in. Once that happened, it ended up working perfectly.

How to think about Pricing Sports Tickets

Wed, 22 Aug 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Pricing is a fantastic economic exercise; is there anything purer than the idea of maximizing profit while selling one single experience? In the spirit of Sloan Sports Analytics Conference starting to sell tickets soon, I thought it would be fun to write down a few main points that I would think about while pricing sports tickets.

The first concern would be to separate the experience artificially. Yes, the “product” is the same; the consumer sees the team play a game of basketball. But there is an “artificial” difference that I would be able to sell: how good of a seat they have. Thus, my first goal would be to examine the price point of these different seats.
Assuming that this plan passes muster, I would then look at ticketing plans. After separating the seats into different categories ¹ , I would then offer various programs for purchase: such as season, half season, what have you. These unique plans would be beneficial for numerous reasons: much like airlines, you could give a discount on reserving all the games early. On the other hand, I could charge a premium for a one ticket game. This price discrimination has the effect of increasing revenue. In addition, preselling tickets gives the organization capital earlier, which is valuable in and of itself.
I would then measure customer churn, especially in the most valuable real estate. If all of the customers are not renewing their tickets in a particular row, is there something wrong with that row? Could the experience be improved in some minor way that would result in a significant revenue savings (aka not having to sell that seat again)?
I would then change the single ticket price based on the particular game that is being played. If a trendy team or player is coming into town, I will charge more for that game as opposed to a less popular team.
Once I get all of those ducks in a row, I could then look at the elasticity of the tickets. By varying the price slightly, I would see how changing the price affects the number of tickets sold. Perhaps some tickets should have their price raised, but others should have their prices lowered. Deeper insight and slight variation of the ticket price should let the team hone in on what exactly the price should be.
Finally, I would examine the average value of the tickets and see if any should be put on sale even further. By discounting those tickets (perhaps to students, veterans, and the elderly), I can further extract even more revenue. It’s better to sell the tickets at a discount as opposed to having an empty stadium.

Overall, this has been a great way to walk through the problems I would tackle in ticket pricing. If I were a business person at a sports team, I would have other issues to worry about as well (staffing and food sales to name two), but this would be the track that I would follow to gain insight into the ticketing process.

Git and Microsoft

Sun, 13 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000

The more I learn about git and Github, the more I wonder why Microsoft hasn’t built git support into Microsoft Word. I feel like this would be the killer productivity app feature!

14 Thoughts from Amos Tversky

Tue, 08 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Per The Undoing Project by Michael Lewis, Amos Tversky (famous for revolutionizing both Psychology and Economics) kept 14 thoughts by his desk. These thoughts will now be on my desk:

People predict by making up stories.

People predict very little and explain everything.

People live under uncertainty whether they like it or not.

People believe they can tell the future if they work hard enough.

People accept any explanation as long as it fits the facts.

Writers’ Block

Sun, 01 Apr 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Here’s an easy tip on how to get past Writers’ Block

Surface 4 Pro Review

Mon, 26 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0000

My Surface Pro 4 Review

Data Replicability

Tue, 13 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0000

By not releasing data, the analytics culture is only hurting itself.

Coffee Shop Equilibrium

Sat, 03 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Attempting to answer the age old question - Why can’t I get a seat in a coffee shop?

Initial Twitter Bot Thoughts

Mon, 19 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Thinking about what would make an interesting bot.

Introduction to Selenium and PyAutoGui

Fri, 02 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +0000

A great introduction on how to get more out of your computer by using python.

How to find all Unique String Items in a Pandas Column

Sun, 28 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000

A quick one liner on dealing with a unique problem

NBA Second Screen Opportunity

Tue, 23 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000

The perfect compliment to a great NBA game

Dean Allen

Thu, 18 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000

I never knew Dean Allen, or even knew him when he was on the internet, but I saw this piece of his that I deeply enjoyed:

HOW TO COOK SOUP First, you need some water. Fuse two hydrogen with one oxygen and repeat until you have enough. While the water is heating, raise some cattle. Pay a man with grim eyes to do the slaughtering, preferably while you are away. Roast the bones, then add to the water. Go away again. Come back once in awhile to skim. When the bones begin to float, lash together into booms and tow up the coast. Reduce. Keep reducing. When you think you have reduced enough, reduce some more. Raise some barley. When the broth coats the back of a spoon and light cannot escape it, you are nearly there. Pause to mop your brow as you harvest the barley. Search in vain for a cloud in the sky. Soak the barley overnight (you will need more water here), then add to the broth. When, out of the blue, you remember the first person you truly loved, the soup is ready. Serve.

Changing the Live Photo Frame

Sat, 02 Dec 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Unlocking Apple’s most powerful photo feature yet

How Editing Helps with Writing

Fri, 01 Dec 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Editing isn’t just for errors; it’s to make the message more clear.

Writing a Novel with Ulysses

Wed, 15 Nov 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Ulysses - Favorite Trojan War hero, excellent writing application, great book to read. Highly Recommended

Warby Parker Moves into AR

Tue, 07 Nov 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Warby Parker is showing how AR can be a game changer.

Constantly Iterating

Sun, 05 Nov 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Improving on the past is important to future growth.

Dealing with NaN values in Pandas

Fri, 22 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000

How to drop and deal with NaN values in Pandas

iPhone X Event: First Impressions

Tue, 12 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Some quick thoughts and analysis on Apple’s recent iPhone Event.

Manipulating and Displaying National Park Service Data

Thu, 10 Aug 2017 00:00:00 +0000

A data visualization project many months in the making, using tableau and python.

Glory Road Review

Sat, 05 Aug 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Talking about one of my favorite science fiction books.

What I'm Reading August 1

Tue, 01 Aug 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Podcasting may be more intelligent than before.

What is Data Science?

Fri, 21 Jul 2017 00:00:00 +0000

A first attempt at defining the nebulous concept of data science

A New Way to Deal with Data in Python

Sun, 16 Jul 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Quilt for manipulating data

Apple Moves into AR

Mon, 10 Jul 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Trying to visualize what Apple’s AR solution will look like and how that can benefit consumers.

How to fix a S3 RequestTimeTooSkewed bug

Mon, 03 Jul 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Time for another Tech Tips post!

Time Tracking

Fri, 30 Jun 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Why I have started tracking my time and tips to get started.

Four More Interesting Links

Thu, 01 Jun 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Keeping up my semi-regular posting of interesting links, here’s what I’ve been reading recently.

Google’s Advertising Advancements

Sun, 28 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000

In breaking data science news, Google can now see if you follow through on a purchase after seeing one of their ads. This is the holy grail of online advertising and is a huge leap forward for monitoring purchasing behavior. For privacy advocates, this is something to keep an eye on as it develops.

Python Data Science Tips

Tue, 23 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Four **very useful ** bits of Python code

The Tools of a Business Analyst

Thu, 18 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Oftentimes I hear people worry about what tools to use. They should instead focus on the right way to think.

Four Interesting Links

Sat, 13 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Starting a new recurring section to show what I’m currently reading. I find these extremely interesting, and hope they will provide the same level of enjoyment.

How to Get Started with Automation, Using Zapier

Mon, 08 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Zapier has an onboarding problem; I’m here to fix it.

Some Crazy Facts about Owning an Electric Car

Mon, 01 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000

If everyone read this article, more people would definitely own electric cars.

Introduction to the Bash Profile

Thu, 20 Apr 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Just started programming? Confused by the terminal? Baffled by bash? This will definitely help clear things up.

What Tech Adventures Have I Gone On Recently

Sat, 15 Apr 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Recent tech upgrades now makes me more productive. Read and see!

The Surprising Commonality between the iPhone and Apple TV

Mon, 10 Apr 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Apple can’t predict the future and I find that very reassuring.

More on Apple’s Pricing Strategy

Wed, 05 Apr 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Apple’s choosing an interesting method to price iPad’s.

Incentives Leading to Fake News

Sun, 02 Apr 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Just another example of applied economics.

Why The Kindle is Flawed

Sat, 25 Mar 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Thinking about buying a Kindle? You may want to think about these flaws first.

Thoughts about Sloan Sports Analytics Conference

Sun, 05 Mar 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Some highlights from my first Sloan Conference, but they aren’t all what one would expect.

My Thoughts on Snap's IPO

Wed, 01 Mar 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Predicting the future is tough. Predicting the future of a company via an income statement is tougher still.

Are transaction costs good for consumers?

Sat, 25 Feb 2017 00:00:00 +0000

It’s more complicated than it appears at first glance

Intro to RSS

Wed, 22 Feb 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Spoiler, of course!

Pricing as an Indie Author with Drew Hayes

Mon, 20 Feb 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Talking pricing and writing with Drew Hayes.

Perfect Competition Assumptions in Real Life

Fri, 17 Feb 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Showing perfect competition assumptions hold up in real life.

Forging Hephaestus Book Review

Wed, 15 Feb 2017 00:00:00 +0000

If you need a book recommendation, look no further.

Modeling Valentine's Gift Giving

Fri, 10 Feb 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Unsure if you should give a Valentine’s Gift? We solved it with Economics.

Fake HTTPS certificates

Tue, 07 Feb 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Constant vigilance featuring tech and an animal metaphor

Open Bar to Capture Consumer Surplus

Sun, 05 Feb 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Using an open bar can help to capture consumer surplus. Who knew!

Finding percentile breaks in Stata

Wed, 25 Jan 2017 00:00:00 +0000

A pretty easy way to find percentile breaks in Stata.

Current Podcasts I'm listening to

Fri, 20 Jan 2017 00:00:00 +0000

A list of current podcasts for those that don’t understand podcasts.

AI Advancements

Sun, 15 Jan 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Keeping an eye on AI is definitely a New Years resolution.

Data Best Practices

Tue, 10 Jan 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Before the fun stuff starts, it’s crucial to do the less fun stuff.

Speed up Mac Animations

Sat, 07 Jan 2017 00:00:00 +0000

A friendly reminder if animations are not your thing.

Reformatting Regression Output in Stata

Thu, 05 Jan 2017 00:00:00 +0000

New Year new way to view regression output.

Practical Goal Setting

Sun, 01 Jan 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Trying to approach goals in a somewhat sustainable way.

Is Mindshare Worth More than Revenue?

Sat, 10 Dec 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Why treat photos as a revenue driver when they’re more useful as a marketing tool?

Big Bet Versus Scale Businesses

Mon, 05 Dec 2016 00:00:00 +0000

It’s important to optimize your business depending on how it makes money.

Minimum Wage Followup

Sun, 20 Nov 2016 00:00:00 +0000

A deeper dive on Efficiency Wage Theory

Apple and Price Discrimination

Tue, 15 Nov 2016 00:00:00 +0000

The retina screen is actually being used against you.

More Thoughts on Pricing a Good

Thu, 10 Nov 2016 00:00:00 +0000

A few more thoughts on what to consider when figuring out a price.

How to Not Suck at Networking

Sat, 05 Nov 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Avoiding awkward conversations in six easy steps!

Do You Really Need a New Macbook Pro?

Mon, 31 Oct 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Apple’s forcing people to pick sides in the computing debate and people aren’t happy about it.

How to Price a Digital Good

Thu, 27 Oct 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Pricing digital goods is electric

Is Leave No Trace Illogical?

Thu, 20 Oct 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Rational consumer theory sparking that sweet sweet controversy.

Why Raising the Minimum wage could be a good idea

Sat, 15 Oct 2016 00:00:00 +0000

2 reasons. No conclusion. All serious analysis.

A Love Letter to 1Password

Mon, 10 Oct 2016 00:00:00 +0000

And it’s not even Valentine’s Day.

Apple Exploit Price Analysis

Fri, 30 Sep 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Current events + Supply and Demand = Winning.

How to get Started with Trading Stocks

Fri, 30 Sep 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Ever wanted to trade stocks? This will show you how.

An Analysis of the Phillips Curve

Sun, 25 Sep 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Phillips Curve - Fact or Fiction?

O(n) for data scientists

Tue, 20 Sep 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Coding just got less complex.

Aggregating Data in SQL

Thu, 15 Sep 2016 00:00:00 +0000

We’re not talking about a fruit rollup here.

Clearing the console and environment in R

Tue, 13 Sep 2016 00:00:00 +0000

New Year New R Studio environment

Removing Scientific Notation from R

Sat, 03 Sep 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Scientific Notation in R getting ya down? Well no more!

The 10-Year Challenge

Thu, 01 Sep 2016 00:00:00 +0000

The most important thing is to start