Joe's Nerdy Weekend Reads #2
It's the weekend, so time to unwind. Pour a cup of coffee (or many) and enjoy some interesting reading.
I’ve been mad busy this week, catching up on a massive to-do list I forgot to get to last week in Europe. As far as content goes, I’m mainly focused right now on two courses in the works. Stay tuned for more details. Also got some new articles in the works that’ll be dropping next week. On top of that, the first early draft chapter of my new book will be unveiled in the next week or so on Practical Data Modeling (under paywall). Expect more chapters to follow soon after that, as they’re drafted, but need to be refined and edited. Needless to say, this week’s theme - high on stress.
As far as rants go, check out my latest 5-Minute Friday, where I ramble about the inverse relationship between delivering value and talking about how much value you add. In a nutshell, if you’re delivering value, you’re probably busy delivering it instead of talking about it. Golf clap.
Thanks,
Joe
If you haven’t done so, please sign up for Practical Data Modeling. There are lots of great discussions on data modeling, and I’ll also be releasing early drafts of chapters for my new data modeling book here. Thanks!
Cool Weekend Reads
Here are some cool things I read this week. Enjoy!
Tech, AI, Data
Introducing DBRX: A New State-of-the-Art Open LLM (Databricks)
Among the giant data platforms, Databricks continues to impress me this year, and their new DBRX LLM puts them ahead in the AI game. Looks like the MosaicML purchase is gonna pay off.
Also, good analysis from Bill Chambers on DBRX here.
The race to replace Redis (LWN.net)
Redis (the company) recently raised a ton of commotion when they changed the license for Redis (the open-source project). Yet another case of why corporate-backed open source is amazing until they decide to change the rules. Expect to see a ton of attention on Redis alternatives like Valkey and others.
Open-Source Companies Are Sharing Their AI Free. Can They Crack OpenAI’s Dominance? (WSJ)
Speaking of open-source...This is a really good look at the complicated - and hopefully promising - business of open-source AI companies.
We’ve been here before: AI promised humanlike machines – in 1958 (The Conversation)
AI’s been through quite a few promising but false starts, starting with the Perceptron in 1958. Will today’s generative AI deliver humanlike machines or AGI? Time will tell, but I personally doubt it. Despite how awesome generative AI is (look at the super cool picture it made for me above), there’s still a lot of work to do.
"When an attacker runs such a campaign, he will ask the model for packages that solve a coding problem, then he will receive some packages that don’t exist," Lanyado explained to The Register. "He will upload malicious packages with the same names to the appropriate registries, and from that point on, all he has to do is wait for people to download the packages."
This is one of the downsides - and reality - that developers will face as they increasingly depend on code copilots. There should be some pretty interesting and potentially nasty feedback loops with AI outputs and re-training, especially as developers become more and more disconnected from the code they’re responsible for.
Biz, Culture, Other Randomness
United States v. Apple (Stratechery)
Apple got sued by Uncle Sam. Among the claims:
“There are two sets of claims in the filing. The first set are written as a narrative for laypeople. The claims are broad and kind of all over the map. Before listing the specifics there is a lot of language and froth about how Apple uses its place in the market. This is the “story.” It is very exciting to read but you have to get to the actual behavior, which the DOJ claims is that “Apple has used one or both mechanisms (control of app distribution or control of APIs) to suppress the following technologies, among others” which includes:
“Supressing Super apps”
“Supressing cloud streaming game apps”
“[P]rohibiting third-party apps from sending or receiving carrier-based messages”
“[S]uppressing key functions of third-party smartwatches”
“[D]enied users access to digital wallets””
This is the US vs Microsoft for the 2020s, and the implications will be massive for the tech industry. Stay tuned.
Crypto Venture Capital Backers Are Dubious About Bull-Market Hype (Bloomberg)
Although crypto is back with a vengeance, VCs are understandably skittish. I’ve still to see a viable use case for crypto, but maybe I’m living under a rock. If anyone has examples, message me as I’m genuinely curious.
The Deodorant AI Spokesmodel Is a Real Person, Sort Of (NYMag)
What happens when an influencer (sort of) allows their likeness to be used by a third party? An AI likeness, of course. Expect to see the lines increasingly blurred between human and AI influencers. I think the influencer ecosystem will crash in its current form, as the space is inundated with AI-generated everything. What will take its place? I predict that in-person “meatspace” will become popular again, along with its version of influencers (I suppose I am a version of this in some of the paid in-person appearances I occasionally do).
Making Sense of Deming (CommonCog)
W. Edwards Deming had a major impact on the world. His book “Out of the Crisis” is a magnum opus that ushered in the continuous improvement and quality movement. I can make an argument that his ideas were responsible for the emergence of DevOps decades later.
As always, Cedric Chin delivers an amazing read. It’s a long article, but worth reading if you subscribe to Cedric’s content at CommonCog. Sidenote, Cedric will be on this upcoming Monday Morning Data Chat.
Daniel Kahneman, Nobel laureate who upended economics, dies at 90 (Washington Post)
Daniel Kahneman is one of my favorite thinkers and writers. RIP to a titan.
New Content, Events, and Upcoming Stuff
Monday Morning Data Chat
Coming up…
Cedric Chin, and more!
In case you missed it…
Martin Musiol - Martin Musiol - Generative AI: Navigating the Course to the AGI Future (Spotify, YouTube)
Tony Baer - The Outlook for Generative AI in 2024 (and Beyond) (Spotify, YouTube)
Ethan Aaron - Is Data a Skill or a Job? (Spotify, YouTube)
Jean-Georges Perrin - Data Mesh, Data Contracts, Modern Data Engineering Standards, Bitol, and More (Spotify, YouTube)
Sol Rashidi - Getting Business Value From Data, the CXO Playbook (Spotify, YouTube). Very popular episode with nearly everyone. - PINNED HERE.
The Joe Reis Show
Coming up…
Kishore Aradhya, Keith Belanger, and many more!
This week…
Angel Narciso - Live From LEAP Riyadh, Saudi Arabia! (Spotify)
5 Minute Friday - The Inverse Relationship of Talking About Value vs Adding Value (Spotify)
In case you missed it…
Jess Haberman - How to Negotiate a Book Deal (Spotify)
5-Minute Friday - How I Write and Why You Should Write (Spotify)
5-Minute Friday - Learning To See (Spotify)
Sadie St. Lawrence - (Spotify)
5-Minute Friday - “Good Enough” Data Models (Spotify)
Christian Bourdeau - The Data Hiring Landscape (Spotify)
Bill Inmon - History Lessons of the Data Industry. This is a real treat and a very rare conversation with the godfather himself (Spotify) - PINNED HERE.
Events I’m Speaking At
Matillion - Deep Dish (Virtual) - April 23. Register here
J On the Beach (Malaga, Spain) - May 6-10. Register here
GenAI Conference (London) - May 20-22 Register here
DAMA Days (Vancouver, BC) - June 14th, TBA
(Taking the Summer off)
DataEngBytes (Australia) - Late September/Early October, TBA
Dubai - Fall, TBA
Lots of stuff in Europe - Fall, TBA
Asia - Fall, TBA
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You can also find me here:
Monday Morning Data Chat (YouTube / Spotify and wherever you get your podcasts). Matt Housely and I interview the top people in the field. Live and unscripted. Zero shilling tolerated.
The Joe Reis Show (Spotify and wherever you get your podcasts). My other show. I interview guests, and it’s unscripted with no shilling.
Practical Data Modeling. Great discussions about data modeling with data practitioners. This is also where early drafts of my new data modeling book will be published.
Fundamentals of Data Engineering by Matt Housley and I, available at Amazon, O’Reilly, and wherever you get your books.
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Thanks!
Joe Reis