The Local Maximum with Max Sklar

This is a conversation with Timoni West at Unity Labs about the emerging tech of Virtual, Augmented, and Mixed reality. We talk about how these new worlds are being created, the challenges that need to be overcome, and how they will be different than you may have assumed from watching your favorite sci-fi movies. localmaxradio.com/79 This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with...

As Max returns from Lviv Ukraine where he offered a course on Bayesian thinking, he shares his knowledge and insights. - What are the drawbacks and limitations to Bayes rule vs other approaches? - Is probability objective or subjective? - How did Larry David illustrates argument by analogy? - The von Mises brothers include one free market economist (Ludwig) and one statistician (Richard) - what di...

Frequent Local Maximum contributor Maryam Aly comes on to discuss her career into competitive foosball, and how she achieved a top ranking in the global foosball leaderboard. We also discuss lessons on teamwork and communication that Maryam has transferred from Foosball over to the software engineering realm! localmaxradio.com/77 This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with oth...

Politicians and bureaucrats in the US are talking about Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency after Facebook announces that they’ll get in the game - including a Trump tweet. Some people are sending Bitcoin through the radio waves to prepare for an extreme scenario. Googlers clearly want to elect a democrat in 2020 - and this is affecting their product decisions. Researchers say an AI is learning science - b...

I discuss with AIER director Jeffrey Tucker his new book, The Market Loves You, covering triumphs of markets and innovation such as the railroad, the word processor, and shoes. We turn to today’s big ideas in Bitcoin, Social Media, and the App Frenzy, and the unresolved problems that the next crop of entrepreneurs, engineers, and consumers will tackle. Finally, we cover the nature of innovation it...

The US Supreme Court says that it can’t weigh in on Gerrymandered districts. We look at the idea of Gerrymandering in the United States, armed with the new social choice tools that we picked up in previous episodes. A Cloudflare outage temporarily takes down a portion of the internet. This may be evidence of a central point of failure, but could that central point be shrinking? Finally we talk abo...

Talk Python To Me host Michael Kennedy discusses a range of issues with Max, including Python's popularity as a programming language and what we can learn from that, hosting a podcast as part of a business, and how programming skills can fit well with other careers and in our education system. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus...

Facebook’s proposed cryptocurrency called Libra is supposed to aid international transactions. Does it compete with banks, or does it compete with Bitcoin? And what are the chances that Facebook and their 100-member consortium of companies will follow through on this over the next few years? We then turn to the idea of voting power, and learn about one important metric when it comes to analyzing v...

We hear from Tassos Noulas, faculty fellow at the NYU Center for Data Science about Urban Data Science and the related theory and projects. In the age of big data, scientists have found a better understanding of how cities develop, how to improve transport networks, and some ideas for future products that can be built around taxis and AR. Topics include the Future Cities Challenge, Taxi price comp...

I look at the woe’s of social media and YouTube today, and discover that similar problems have occurred throughout history. Covering the rise of radio in the 1920’s and 1930’s including Fascist orators and federal intervention of radio in the 1930s, Cable News Fights, the FCC worried about explicit content in the 1990s and 2000s. Finally, I compare the truly decentralized universe of podcasts - th...

Apple announces that they are unbundling iTunes into several apps at WWDC. Some feared this means the end of iTunes, but we discuss how it's actually a design upgrade. Foursquare and Placed brought together in a big spinoff-merger deal. What does that mean for the future of location, ads, and attribution? Lots of emphasis on privacy at WWDC. Cubans to get private wifi - are they slowing joining th...

Aaron and I discuss my list of 6 university courses that in retrospect have influenced me in surprising and unexpected ways, even after many years. The list is: Yale's Writing Seminar (Yale) Functional Programming (Yale) Philosophy and Computer Science (Yale) Emerging Technology and Business Innovation (NYU Stern) Machine Learning (NYU Courant) Electronic Communities (NYU Stern) This is a public e...

The episode starts with a game of thrones discussion for 2 minutes (how can it not)! And then Max discusses some related news items coming out of China: The Rise of The Social Credit Score The Re-Education Camps the Uighers and others in Western China are being forced into Causality Myths The Big Debate on Socialism vs Capitalism This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with oth...

I visited Foursquare HQ to check in with Executive Chairman Dennis Crowley. - Personal stories and the Innovative mind - Industry trends in consumer apps/big data - Foursquare's latest labs project: hypertrending at SXSW I also follow up on last weeks episode, with more details on voting affecting the outcome of an election, and the turkey vs email problem. This is a public episode. If you would l...

How can one estimate the probability of an unprecedented event - something that has never happened before - happening? It seems like a hopeless endeavor, but there actually are valid strategies to tackle this problem. We also recap the interviews that occurred in the 5 previous episodes, and the continuing closure and censorship of our social networks as they are increasingly becoming associated w...

Marc Cenedella is the CEO of Ladders, Inc, and today he talks to Max about the Ladders Job Search service, and the job matching problem in the 21st century. After diving into The Ladders’ specific audience and product approach, the conversation turns to Max’s resume. The advice provided is invaluable to all job seekers - present and future - out there. localmaxradio.com/64 This is a public episode...

Today’s interview is with Bethany Crystal at Union Square Ventures. We cover a lot of ground Building Network Effects as a means to Market Power Building Careers, avoiding the career cliff Inspiration from the Idea of Transfer Learning Diversification in investments and in the self Check out Bethany’s blog: http://bethanycrystal.com/blog/ I also talk about the launch of the Luminary Podcast Networ...

Today's interview was done at a Tech2025 event where participants were asked to think about wealth and the present state of the US and Global economy. I spoke to Denise Hearn, author of "The Myth of Capitalism" about the trend towards Oligopoly and its causes. Also included are discussions about the definition of capitalism, the definition of wealth, the price of a free good, regulatory capture, a...

Michael Bronspigel runs the Facebook capitalism page and tells the story of how Facebook’s algorithm and policies affected his group. We also talk about - the nature of online properties - the story of how he started the group and turned it into a business - retro internet memes - the push to further crack down on content The group: fb.com/capitalists , capitalismisfreedom.org Show notes: localmax...

I caught up with Hilary Mason, GM of Machine Learning at Cloudera and former founder of Fast Forward Labs. We cover how to: - Generate ideas for Machine Learning Research - Hold a good brainstorm - Break into tech as a Data Scientist - Give an engaging and successful tech talk I also asked Hilary about the evolving role of Machine Learning and Data Science, and what she wants to build in the futur...

Today we have a look at how information technology is affecting life in authoritarian socialist regimes such as Cuba and Venezuela. Particularly, we discuss the introduction of 3G cellular service in Cuba, and how it has needed to compromise on allowing more connectivity to its citizens over the last decade. In the case of Venezuela, we look at how cryptocurrency (and Bitcoin in particular) is bei...

Today's interview is with Mark Weiss, Data Engineer at Beeswax and host of Using Reflection which is a podcast where engineers talk about what they love and what they've learned in their careers. I asked him about what he personally has learned from his interviews and from his own career started in the news media. Then, we turn to the craft of data engineering - on which the viability of all the i...

There's a lot of confusion over what a "data scientist" is these days, and the job titles can mean multiple things to multiple people. It's also getting tougher for new entrants into the job market. Max breaks it down and gives advice for those looking to break in. On the technical side, Max starts with the argument from analogy, a philosophical argument that works alongside Bayes which we use wit...

Google's "VP of Trust and Safety" has put out Google's strategy for weeding out fake news. Do they have the right definition? Will it work? What is a VP of Trust and Safety? We'll discuss whether Google is looking out for their users. In that vein, we wanted to discuss new ways fake news might be generated, and found this site thispersondoesnotexist.com created images of people who are not real bu...

Author David Auerbach covers Bitwise: A Life in Code. We discuss: - The consequences of data everywhere from the 1980s to today. - Taxonomies and their bias and imperfection. Applications to Mental Illness, personality (meyers-briggs + PI), marketing age buckets - Dealing with Bias in AI and Humans - David's Role in the fight for compatibility between MSN messenger and AIM Get the Book: https://ww...