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View Profile About RJ

Looking to Join a Venture?

Maybe

I'm Looking For

I'm looking for development or management roles in agile companies with a clear mission that improves users' lives.

Quick Summary

ML-focused engineer and manager who wants to improve the world

I Enjoy

Mentoring junior developers, road-mapping mission-critical systems, data science projects, college football, Brazilian jiu-jitsu

My Skills

C#, ASP .Net, MVC, Python, R, AWS management, machine-learning, data science (predictions, clustering, visualization), management

My History

Engineering manager at unicorn fintech startup, Consultant for global enterprises, Devops evangelist for a regional bank, machine-learning engineer for athlete recruitment.

I'm Building

My pet project was to write a learning AI for Street Fighter 4. It learned to walk forward and attack, but I didn't generate enough training data to learn how to perform combos and super moves. ML is not at all the right approach if you want to beat real players of the game, so it's shelved, probably permanently.

RJ's Ventures

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Question

What hobby would you get into if time and money weren’t an issue?

RJ's Answer

Race car driver. I have an engineer's mind, without an artistic bone in my body, so the mechanics required to build a good car and the physics required to drive it well appeal to me. It's exciting to move that fast, and to balance incremental improvement in lap times with knowledge of the limit of your abilities.

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See Other User's Answers

/Answer Posted By: Tom

What hobby would you get into if time and money weren’t an issue?

I would enjoy writing. Books, movies, comedy, etc. I think that a lot of people imagine themselves sitting near a large window overlooking some vista or perhaps deep in the woods. The only thing in front of them would be a cup of coffee and their thoughts. This is probably unrealistic and would become boring shortly after beginning, but the idea is nice to think about and strive for. Ironically, I think my goal is to work as hard as I can to save a little money so that I can perhaps do something like this, but in reality an activity so simple doesn't really require much money at all. It always reminds me of this story I heard once that makes me question some aspects of my goals. But then again - the story below doesn't really emphasize the enjoyment that comes from building something. As a boat docked into a tiny seaside village, a visiting businessman complimented the local fisherman on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took him to catch them. "Not very long," answered the fisherman. "But then, why didn't you stay out longer and catch more?" asked the businessman. The fisherman explained that his small catch was sufficient to meet his needs and those of his family. The businessman asked, "But what do you do with the rest of your time?" "I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, and take a siesta with my wife. In the evenings, I go into the village to see my friends, play the guitar, and sing a few songs... I have a full life." The businessman interrupted, "I have an MBA from Harvard, and I can help you! You should start by fishing longer every day. You can then sell the extra fish you catch. With the extra revenue, you can buy a bigger boat." "And after that?" asked the fisherman. "With the extra money the larger boat will bring, you can buy a second one and a third one and so on until you have an entire fleet of trawlers. Instead of selling your fish to a middle man, you can then negotiate directly with the processing plants and maybe even open your own plant. You can then leave this little village and move to the city, Los Angeles, or even New York City! From there you can direct your huge new enterprise." "How long would that take?" asked the fisherman. "Twenty, perhaps twenty-five years," replied the businessman. "And after that?" "Afterwards? Well my Friend, That's when it gets really interesting," answered the businessman, laughing. "When your business gets really big, you can start selling stocks and make millions!" "Millions? Really? And after that?" said the fisherman. "After that you'll be able to retire, live in a tiny village near the coast, sleep late, play with your children, catch a few fish, take a siesta with your wife and spend your evenings doing what you like and enjoying your friends."

Looking For: I'm looking to meet motivated people.

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