jonkiddy

Two things come to mind… my work and my involvement with FIRST robotics.

I’m the Director of IT Operations for a contract research organization (CRO). While that might not sound inherently interesting it’s deeply fulfilling. My role involves building and maintaining software that help facilitate critical research for NIH and NCI, often supporting breakthroughs in healthcare and science. I love the intersection of technology, problem-solving, and enabling teams to deliver life-changing results by helping change the standard of care for people affected by cancer.

Outside of work, I’m heavily involved with FIRST robotics, which is a worldwide competitive robotics program for high school age students. It’s an amazing initiative where students design, build, and program robots to compete in team-based challenges. And it’s very fun. I mentor students, guiding them through the technical challenges we come up against and help them discover their own potential. Watching young minds light up is very rewarding. Being a small part of that community is one of the most rewarding things I do.

Perhaps Toronto, Canada?

Reading, FIRST robotics, soccer

I had a very similar line of reasoning one afternoon when making a salad for lunch. The fork, the plates, the kitchen, the ingredients, the electronics needed. All the details, history, effort, CAD, software, billing, logistics, sales, monetary transactions... which all led up to the moment where I could enjoy a salad.

After 10+ years working as a web developer with a non-CS degree, I heard about Georgia Tech's OMSCS program [0] and signed up almost immediately. The timing was right for me and my family and my employer offered tuition reimbursement. I kept my day job and spent nights and weekends working on assignments and studying. It was challenging and learned quite a bit.

[0] https://omscs.gatech.edu/

I use Royal TS/X [1] nearly every day and enjoy it very much. I'm not affiliated with them in any way, just a happy customer.

[1] https://royalapps.com/ts/mac/features

I recently read a news article that Sam Altman is attending the Bilderberg Meeting [0]. The timing is perfect.

[0] https://bilderbergmeetings.org/meetings/meeting-2023/partici...

This is the basic plot in the singularity series of books. [0]

[0] https://www.amazon.com/Singularity-Series-4-book-series/dp/B...

I suggest you look into getting involved with something hands on. FIRST Lego League[0] is a rewarding experience.

[0] https://www.firstlegoleague.org/

A few years back before Covid, I held biweekly open meetings for anyone to learn practical Git basics where I work. I had about 20 people come through (PhD's, Statisticians, etc.) Let's talk! My email is in my profile.

If you truly want to learn, I suggest joining a local FRC Robotics team as a new/junior mentor. If you simply ask the students to show you what they have been working on, you may be inspired to join in and help. You'll learn together... mechanical, electrical, programming, etc.

A short overview of what FIRST robotics is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd29kzjclV0

A web based tool to search for local teams: https://www.firstinspires.org/team-event-search#type=teams&s...

I've been volunteering as a FIRST mentor for the last nine years and have learned more about robotics from the students than I did in my master's program or on my own.

stipend for books and/or conferences

I have benefited monetarily indirectly by lurking on HN for years and reading others’ thoughtful comments on a variety of subjects. Then apply some of those thoughts to my career as a developer, then later a EM. HN has been a gold mine of ideas by reading what others on HN post while interacting with each other.

For representing the technical architecture on a whiteboard, I tend to gravitate towards the first three levels of the C4model [0]. For meetings with management, I like to use AWS's architecture icons [1] within a slide deck.

[0] https://c4model.com/ [1] https://aws.amazon.com/architecture/icons/

I'm the technical lead for the IOTN [1] which is a part of the Cancer Moonshot program [2]. Our mission is to improve immunotherapy outcomes and to ultimately prevent cancer before it occurs. Our team is moving forward on a few projects internally that I'm not at liberty to share but will be released later this year. There is a lot of hope that immunotherapy will have a profound affect on patient outcomes.

[1] https://www.iotnmoonshot.org [2] https://www.cancer.gov/research/key-initiatives/moonshot-can...

If you fine one, I'm very interested. Please share.

This article has great content! But at best I'm amateur skier not a snowboarder.

Define the problem. Write some code to solve the problem. Ask people who have that particular problem to give you money. Ask them if they know others who have the same problem. Finally ask them if they have other problems you can solve. Then repeat.

The validation happens the moment you ask someone for money. You'll know either way quite quickly.

I'm very interested in this. Please share.

Do you have a blog post or could recommend one that covers your setup? Particularly any software that needs to be installed to get ML setup properly. I’m putting together an eGPU together in the near future and have read quite a bit, however any pitfalls that could be avoided would be helpful to know up front.

Count me in too.

I work for a cancer research hospital. I'm training an LSTM today using TensorFlow to determine months left to live for specific patient conditions given previous outcomes.

The primary goal of soccer parents in the US is to get their sons/daughters a collegiate scholarship. I suspect the primary goal of most other countries is to play professionally.

7.5

I've realized that I spend most of time focusing on the second most important task I need to accomplish at any given moment. And since most of my work has been handed to me by other people, most of them think I'm amazingly efficient and end up exceedingly happy with the timeliness of my work, all but the one who is currently waiting for their high priority request.

You're absolutely right, a simple UPS would be sufficient for my needs. I'm beginning to wonder if that is all I'm missing from my setup.

I have my MacBook Pro on a stand then use a bluetooth keyboard and external monitor. Rarely do I use the actual keyboard.

If Apple created something similar to a Mac mini with a laptop battery I would buy it immediately. I know it wouldn't work for everyone, but it would suit my needs.

Google Scholar https://scholar.google.com/

FIRST Robotics https://www.firstinspires.org/robotics/frc

I had exactly the same thought coming out of college. I have made a career helping oncologists as a software engineer. One of the best choices I ever made. Good luck!

I'm currently following the apprentice model you're describing with my own children. Each of my kids are interested in a particular project of their choosing (personal website, mobile game, robotics). All are very simplistic projects but are fun and unique enough that each are excited about their own project and share progress with each other throughout the week. I spend one hour per kid every weekend 1-on-1 reviewing the progress, making suggestions, etc. Its very rewarding.