Through unparalleled interconnectedness and the wide availability of educational resources, we each have more opportunity to evoke positive change than any other humans in history. "How would future-you want you to live your life?" I reflect on an anthropological thought experiment offered by my friend, machine vision specialist, Dr. Alex Flint.
What Consumers Want: It's Immaterial →
Firms often focus on the material products they specialise in, losing touch with the psychological drivers underlying consumer decisions. With reference to the increasingly patient-centric approach of the healthcare industry, I argue that product development and marketing should be rooted in the deep, existential yearnings of prospective customers.
Zero to One: Peter Thiel's Call for Innovation →
Want to alternately have your mind blown and inspired? Give renowned venture capitalist Peter Thiel's beautiful Zero to One a read. This is my review of the book.
Shiny: Render R Plots into Interactive HTML →
If you're familiar with R, you can quickly and easily create interactive HTML graphics with the Shiny package by RStudio. Here's a primer on how it works and what it can do.
Service and Courage: Lady Villiers' Full Life →
I reflect on having the courage to serve, thereby living a full life, through a focus on the extraordinary accomplishments of Lady Villiers.
Data: We Live in the Most Peaceful Times Ever →
Despite perceptions created in broadcast news, violent crime -- from international through to the domestic scale -- is at its lowest rates in modern history. I summarise convincing secondary research from Steven Pinker and Andrew Mack in this post.
Multitasking Kills Productivity: Ten Tips To Avoid It →
While many conveniences are afforded by modern electronic devices, there is growing experimental and neurological research that the divided attention they facilitate considerably reduces the quality and efficiency of our work. Here, I list ten ways to stay focused on the task at hand.
Data: Most Health Supplements Don't Work →
The bulk of popular dietary supplements have little to no supporting evidence that they are effective. In this post, I explore a beautiful third-party interactive visualisation to argue that as few as 14% of supplements have promising data to back them up.
2014 Media Trends →
Jed Meyer, Kathy Grey, and their research team at the Omnicom Media Group put together a tremendous report on the 2014 trends in media. I've grabbed a few of their most instructive figures across television, print, radio, mobile, gaming, and the out-of-home categories, and summarised them here.
Data Science in Digital Advertising →
Last week, I had the pleasure of contributing to a panel at the academic New York Computer Science and Economics Day on the topic of Data Science in the Online Advertising Ecosystem. We described how the system fits together and discussed the major problems being solved by data scientists in the space.
Iraq to Washington: Seth's Underdog Victory →
In this piece, I describe Seth Moulton's journey of service from Harvard to the Middle East to US Congress, highlighting some of the analytical techniques I supported his election campaign with.
Data Scientist Skills & Data Scientist Salaries →
In by far my most popular item thus far, I outline the hard and soft skill sets of data scientists, how well various specialisations with the field are compensated, and how these professionals can have a broad, positive societal impact.
How To: Grow Your Own Brain Cells →
The understanding of the growth of new brain cells has flourished in the past decade. Here I explore how new brain cell growth, or neurogenesis, can be influenced and whether such influence -- with exercise, sleep, diet, drugs, or stress -- has an impact, positive or negative.
Bytes of a Luiz Suárez Computed Network →
I carried out a network analysis of the nearly 5000 Luis Suárez-related news pieces that appeared in highly-reputed outlets over the past twelve months. This provided me with broad perspective on the 24-hour global news cycle.