Does A Frog Have Scorpion Nature?

Today I'm chatting with Demetrios Brinkmann, certified Cool Dude (TM) with lots of experience in the machine learning space. I recorded this a million years ago and must thank Demetrios for his patience. Topics we touch on are: machine learning hype in businesses, job searches, and the pros/cons of authenticity in a career.Also, in a desperate attempt to feel like this is a responsible thing to produce while running a business, you can get advice on all sorts of software problems from my team at hermit-tech.com or email me personally at [email protected] thanks are also extended to Lisa Lorenzin for taking my garbage audio and turning it into something passable.

Today we've got Felipe Velez on the podcast, a close friend of mine from the improv theatre scene here in Melbourne. I know, I know, weird topic, but I want everyone to know about it. We're catching Felipe as he's on his way back to Columbia for the next big chapter of his life. He's easily amongst the funniest and most wholesome people I've ever met. If anything we talk about sounds interesting, look up a local improv school, preferably one that uses Keith Johnstone's material quite heavily. I attend a place called Impro Melbourne, which I highly recommend. And finally, thanks to Dennis Crenshaw for helping with the audio. As always, all good things are Dennis and all bad things were probably me.

Today we've got Simon Swords, the managing director at Fundipedia and all-around extremely cool guy. His first email to me had this at the start, middle, and end: "DO NOT START A BUSINESS THAT DOES NOT HAVE A LARGE AMOUNT OF ANNUAL RECURRING REVENUE." And I cannot begin to describe how much suffering he has saved me. With my newfound internet fame, I am going to upgrade my recording setup substantially after this one - so this is and the next episode (already recorded) are hopefully the last times I apologize for the audio. Sorry Simon!

This episode's guest is Jesse Alford, a former staff engineer at Pivotal Software, and the host of Radio Free XP. I've been corresponding with Jesse daily for a month or two now, and am consistently blown away by his insight into any topic I dredge up. We discuss a whole bunch of things, ranging from seriousness in job, whether entering management to drive organizational change is wise, to what you should learn from crashing prod. I have also used a compressor for the audio this time, so we move ever closer to respectability. Enjoy!

This episode is one that I've been super excited for - it's with Kijana Woodard, who runs kaizen.io! Kijana reached out to me a few months ago to talk about some writing, and we've been talking ever since. We're spiritually aligned on what fulfilling work looks like, and had a fantastic time talking. Today's topics range from how it's terrible that I.T has three-year seniors to how most actual decision-making authority looks like it's distributed, but in reality most managers don't have the ability to buy their team a pizza. Kijana also tells me one of the funniest stories I've ever heard in the tech space in the last three minutes. As always, feedback at [email protected] is welcome, especially on audio quality. I think I did a lot better this time, but I have listened so many times that I feel like I've lost the ability to even tell what's good anymore.