Gradient Ascent #2 - Devayani Pawar

Devayani's fearlessness to jump headfirst into new topics is admirable. Indeed, it's this willingness to take a "leap of faith" that brought her half-way across the world, from her home in India to George Mason University, where she recently graduated with a Master's in Data Analytics Engineering & Data Mining. I enjoyed our conversation as we covered a whole range of subjects, including (but not limited to) data science, learning strategies, her internship at Micron, and a little philosophy!

Ed's background is fascinating. His journey - from his beginnings at Boeing, to his time at Carnegie Mellon, and most recently at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory - has covered quite a bit of ground. He's also a fellow SharpestMinds mentee, and we talk about this journey, his project, and a variety of other interesting subjects. Oh, and you'll learn who the Pachanga Boys are!

Today has been a little different than usual. I had a good conversation this morning with somebody I reached out to via a cold email. It makes me wonder why I spent so much time looking through job boards. Don't be afraid, just send it. You never know what might happen. It did throw me a little out of my rhythm, though, and I dove headfirst into work related to the data ingestion part of my project. I did get something accomplished; however, it highlighted how vulnerable you could become when you go into something with no plan. I've found that having a general outline for the day so that I know what tasks I need to do provides a significantly higher level of clarity throughout the day. Plus, at the end of the day, I can look back and assess what I did, which provides some satisfaction.

Today's daily stand-up started rather innocently by looking at what yesterday's work. However, it quickly went down the rabbit hole. When we look at disinformation online, and for example, how conspiracy theories have become more prevalent in recent years, we can see that this is a multi-faceted issue. It not only involves technology, but throws into question our ideas on what free speech should look like, and how the complexity of our world can be cognitively overwhelming. There are still a lot of questions, and from what I can see, no answers...yet.

Today, we're going to optimize my project's ETL. We can gather the data, but now we need to clean it and store it in the right spot. We'll also continue to build out the spreadsheet of misinformation narratives that are currently swirling around the COVID-19 pandemic. Also, I consider the reversibility of a decision and how that affects its cost.

My project has now reached the point where we need to start exploring the narratives around COVID-19. Additionally, there is still work when it comes to data ingestion. I need not only to see if I can speed this process up, but to integrate it into my repository for the project.

In the words of Steven Pressfield: What is this about? This episode centers around the investigation of my SharpestMinds project, and why I'm doing it in the first place. Additionally, it examines why the issue of mis/disinformation is like a multi-headed dragon.

IToday was particularly interesting as I started to probe the question of why researching disinformation has become such a significant component of my life. And I think the answers may have their roots in a movie and a video game that I was particularly fascinated by growing up.

Another day, some more ML. I’m trying a new method of recording today. I'm taking a walk outside, to test myself mentally. I liked it, and it helped give me a little extra clarity of thought.

What do you do when you start the day feeling unmotivated? Set the bar for that day at a level such that you can keep taking baby steps. And while you may be moving at a more turtle-like pace, you're still moving forward. Being consistent, and maintaining a sense of momentum, is arguably more important than how much ground you cover on any given day.