Eric J Ma's Website

How can a 15th-century explorer teach us about modern goal-setting strategies? In this blog post, I explore Andy Grove's part-historical, part-fictional take on Christopher Columbus in his quest to find a trade route to the Far East. By looking at Columbus' story through the lens of Grove's book "High Output Management," we can learn that OKRs are not a contract but something more useful... Come check out what I learned recently while listening to High Output Management!

I've just automated the creation of Google Docs using Python! 🐍 I used a Google service account to authenticate, then created the doc content using Markdown. I converted the Markdown to HTML, then uploaded it as a Google Doc. I also learned how to set multi-line environment variables and programmatically set document permissions. It was a fun and enlightening project! 🎉

I built a translator using GPT3 for Ark Channel, a daily devotional written in Chinese. The translator parses the text into structured data, translates the devotional and additional texts, and generates cover images.

I also built a UI using Panel and deployed it on a Dokku server on DigitalOcean. The result? My translation time went from 10-15 minutes to just 2! 🚀

I discuss two Twitter threads that outline potential business ideas that could be built on top of ChatGPT3, a chatbot-based language model. What's the tl;dr? As mankind has done over and over, we build machines to solve mundane and repetitive tasks, and ChatGPT3 and other generative models are no exception!

I gave AI coding tools like GitHub Copilot a try and found them subtly valuable. They're not replacements but augmentations for skilled practitioners who can verify their output. Incorrect outputs can spark creative solutions, making these tools powerful. So, no, AI won't take our jobs, but will supercharge our skills. 🚀👩‍💻🤖

With the Twitter-to-Mastodon migration ramping up, I've received questions on which Mastodon instance to go to. Here's my answer!

Just had an insightful 1:1 with a teammate. We discovered how writing project documentation helps with presentations! 📝 It clarifies our mental knowledge graph, gives us practice in creating narratives, and provides a 'hard copy' of project elements for future use. 🧠💡

After many attempts, I've found a solution to code on my iPad using VSCode in Blink! All my settings sync perfectly, and I can even run Jupyter notebooks. It's like having my MacBook Air, but lighter. 📱💻🚀

Today I learned how to solve yet another fairly esoteric issue with apt.

For us data scientists, whose work is what Cal Newport calls "deep work", staying focused amongst a barrage of distractions is a challenge. In this post, I outline several tips that data scientists can use to stay focused at work.