TJ Palanca

What I’ve been reading

• Down with Experimentation Maximalism is from the Analytics Engineering Roundup, and offers a great framework for thinking about how to use experimentation and product development:
  • before product-market fit (PMF), you should be developing bold hypothesis and attempting to get at the root of issues, which can just rely on descriptive statistics.
  • after PMF,¹ you should more likely rely on a structured experimentation program to eke out the maximum returns from your current product’s monetization and quality.

• Four frameworks for self-service analytics is another great newsletter post from the Analytics Engineering Roundup.
  • Frameworks always exist, even if they are just implicitly used.
  • All have assumptions, implications, and limitations, and the wisdom is knowing how to translate those into decisions, and when to use a different framework.
  • In self-serve analytics, there are a few frameworks that are commonly used:
    • to save analyst time for higher-level decisions -> usually ends up in a situation where the lowest-value items have the best documentation and support
    • to break down data silos -> ends up in a situation where most time is spent on band-aid solutions that don’t address fundamental infrastructure issues
    • to provide a single source of truth for highest value issues -> author clearlypresents this as a more preferred option => ends up in a situation where the most time is spent on the highest leverage things
    • to increase data-driven decision making => too vague of a framework for anyone to most concretely facilitate in while performing their daily roles.
  • I really like the iteration he’s come up with, breaking it down in 2 dimensions (positive vs normative, and within different decision types):
• Quantum Resistant Crypto Hacked is a reminder that when using blockchain technologies, trust shifts from human actors to the encryption algorithms and the rules of governance encoded in that blockchain. Risk management, instead of being rendered unnecessary, shifts from those human systems to the technologies employed.

Today I learned

• Restoring modification timestamps in cloned git repos - This is useful in CI/CD workflows that rely on modification timestamps.

Peaceable disposition, indeed

One of my favorite examples of sarcasm as early as the 1800s:

Mine is a most peaceable disposition. My wishes are: a humble cottage with a thatched roof, but a good bed, good food, the freshest milk and butter, flowers before my window, and a few fine trees before my door; and if God wants to make my happiness complete, he will grant me the joy of seeing some six or seven of my enemies hanging from those trees. Before death I shall, moved in my heart, forgive them all the wrong they did me in their lifetime. One must, it is true, forgive one’s enemies– but not before they have been hanged. Heinrich Heine