Keep Moving On (feet. IssacO)

Vision
- everyone should have financial stability by leveraging the latest technology
- in the future, this will be a marketplace for financial products in order to help people make the right decision

Background
- this idea was born when he traveled to India in summer of 2017 to find my gurus in a hacker dorm
- he went through a financially unstable period of time, he started to believe everyone should have a quality life
- his experiences as a product marketer at a data company, he believes data can forecast problems in advance

Value
- get a better return than fund managers without financial knowledge
- only pay when you make money using our product
- connect other finacial services through APIs, so this fits well on your needs

Current Progress
- website (http://www.space17.com/ )
- github (https://github.com/yasunakacho/astroplot )
- google+ (https://plus.google.com/u/1/ )


Future Development
- send notification emails when users set price alerts
- create mobile versions for iOS and Android use React Native
- implement financial models so users can choose from what they prefer
- implement latest machine learning models for the app

Now what?
- present the product, collect feedback and make improvements
- improve the product up to the level you can get value out of it
- give a big presentation in technology x finance conference to measure the gap

Circling back to Hong Kong

I first visited HK was in transit when I was 20 years old after spending a month in New Zealand to study English. That was my first time to travel abroad alone and had a unique feeling of something new had been starting in a new chapter of my life while I was laying down on the 3-person bench. However, I could not imagine my 20s would turn this way. To be honest, all I had my mind back then were going to the State for graduate study and become world well-known architect.

As some of the readers might know I made the first dream came true, but not so much for the second one. After coming back from New Zealand, I did study hard for all the courses related to architecture and prepared to study abroad by myself. For the last two and half years in college was a tough one given that I could not fit well on the teaching style of traditional architecture professor did. Anyways, I did get into the University of Cincinnati where I gained a new perspective on the world and life. Make the long story short, I was going to the right direction to be an architect that I wanted. However, the life after graduation was not easy.

This short Hong Kong and Shenzhen trip reminded me some better sweat and memories of my 20s, which had only success rate below 10% from all aspects including professional and personal life. Sometimes I would think back to these days and ask myself what I would do differently? Then three answers would be 1.predict the impact of what you have done one thing 2. work with friends for bigger impact 3. put yourself into the most exciting environment. the first one applies to my grad school. back then my goal was studying urban planning in the States without doing enough research about what are the possibilities of after graduation. If I could find out the impact to find good jobs are not that positive, then I might consider studying different subjects. For the second is something I always need to reminds me. One can only do so many things. Without getting empowered from friends and families, nobody can achieve big things. From elementary school, I was a kid who prefers to play video games rather than play with friends. This kind of characteristic, I found out later, is not positive for someone who can achieve bigger things. For the third thing was also related to my personality, which I can stand for and go through tough times. this may sound positive, and yes it works well most of the situations. However, the downside of this is you are not actively looking for exciting opportunities and waste for your precious times. I wish I could transfer to a college in the States, so my life ends up in a differently.

Oh, that is a long story for most of the readers. Anyway, let me continue what I had 4 days in Hong Kong and Shenzhen.

Day1.Had lunch and dinner my aunt and her family. stayed at Mojo Nomad, the coolest stay
Day2. Met Alfred, a future well-known architect, and had a city tour stayed on the 26th floor of an apartment
Day3. Was planning to meet Daniel, but ended up spending whole day to attend Tencent tech meetup and chilled out with host house. stayed at Young Artist House. the host was so helpful to open locker when I lost the locker key.
Day4. Met Liu Xin, a talented CEO, who own E-commerce company

Honestly, I really never planned any of them except for the places to stay for Day 1 and Day 3. Everything turned out great in the end, although there were some troubles like Google can’t be used in Shenzhen, and I had to cross the border of HK and Shenzhen which took me approximately 4 hours and I walked around almost 2 hours to find the place I stayed at Day 3 and things like that. Life is so good when something unexpected happens and that leads you to the new frontier. I am sure there would be a lot of changes happening for this 10 years. I am looking forward some positive outcome, say 30% of success rates ;) for both my professional life as well as personal life, in my 30s.

Traveling and Learning

I have been traveling Sri Lanka and India for last 7 days and I am fortunate enough to learn many things (some of those are new to me and others are something I forgot through everyday life). I would like to pick three things that I think the most important realizations to me (hopefully to readers as well) that I want to share with. Since I am writing this blog in Sri Lanka International airport, I may be able to learn new lessons by I finish writing this one.

Benefits of traveling:
1. Start from your new life from scratch
2. Laser focus on what you can do due to time constraint
3.Opportunities of being alone and vulnerable


When you travel the places you are not familiar, let's say in foreign countries, you do not anything that much you can uses except for you have local friends there. That means you need to start your traveling life by preparing food, buying necessary commodities, and figuring out what you want to do in that time period. Even you can only live your life once, but it seems there is a life inside of your life when you traveling.

The second benefit of traveling is you can focus on what really matters to you during the travel since you have an only limited amount of time available. You may want to visit as many as tourist spots, you may want to explore local food, or you may want to relax on the beach, or you may want to attend specific events. The list can go on a quite a few. But what I want to try to say in here is no matter how many things you want to do, you have an only certain amount of time, so you are forced to choose several activities that can fit in the time slot. By thinking your traveling plan, you have to prioritize what really matters to you, which give you a good sense of understanding of who you are made of. You may be someone who has the limitless curiosity to explore new cities, or you are a foodie who wants to taste different things.

Last but not least, I think the chances that you can be alone and vulnerable is one of the most important things that may underestimate that travel can provide us. You may be a popular figure who everyone around you pays respects in a certain social group, such as you are a good leader in your company, you have some skills that separate from the crowds, or whatever it is. Nobody gives a shit when you are in other countries. You may be arrogant in your company, but if you treat others like that in a different environment I am sure that nobody will accept that. This may sound a little terrifying especially for those who are always in his/her comfort zone, but it is a good learning opportunity that you are a no one in a different environment. On top of that, you do not know local custom and you would have lots of problems that you will not encounter when you are in your environment. That reminds us vulnerable we are.

With that, I would like to end this short post with two thoughts that I learned during the travel (that may be applied to my life):
-Travel doesn't go as planned -> Enjoy uncertainty and troubles that may bring you something special that you never imagined in the first place
-Always be a little more playful -> Travel is tough sometimes for the variety of reasons, so be little more creative and make room to enjoy it
-Think how to minimize your regret -> You can only take your good memories to your graveyard, so make regret as less as possible

Hope you all have a great travel ;D

[1 Month Challenge] Learn data science in a month Final Week

The following detail was the last meetup for the 1 Month Data Science Challenge.

We had a great time working toward our initial goals, and some of us made quite a few progress within a month.

Although we still keep learning data science and machine learning, we had celebrated our first milestone for the end of the series of meetup.



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Hi Data Scientists!

We are excited to host the last meetup for the Learn Data Science in A Month Challenge! If you are passionate to learn fundamental skills of data science and machine learning, you should come!

Two special speakers who works as ML engineers will join us this meetup to celebrate the end of the challenge. They will give us talk about the following topics,



Selection of Algorithms in Machine Learning

By Aditya

Come hear practical methods of how to select machine learn algorithms in healthcare industry. He will talk about several real-world cases.

Convolutional neural network (CNN) and it's history

By Masa

In this talk, get the in-depth insights and historical knowledges of the CNN from an AI expert.



Please do not hesitate reach out to me if you have any concerns about this meetup. Looking forward to see you all.

Cheers,

Yasu

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You can find more information about this challenge below.



The Challenge:

We set out to learn the following Udemy's data science and machine learning course for a month. (Farmer data scientist at Google also recommended this course )

https://www.udemy.com/python-for-data-science-and-machine-learning-bootcamp



Timetable:

8:00 - 8:10 Introduction of attendee and the meetup

8:10 - 8:30 Share progresses of the challenge

8:30 - 9:00 Guest Talk 01 (Aditya) and FAQ

9:00 - 9:30 Guest Talk 02 (Masa) and FAQ

9:40 - 9:50 Wrap up

Fee:

Also please pay your dinner and drinks you buy at the Base Point, which should be around 1,000 yen.

https://www.meetup.com/TechnologyExchangeTokyo/events/241113833/
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As the following event, I'm thinking as the following meetups:

Mini project of applying python and ML within 2 hours
ML
-use APIs to build simple services
-build full stack image recognition product with Django or Rails
-build full stack chatbot product with Django or Rails

DS
-deep down the titanic challenge to get more accuracy
-practice other 10 projects and get familiar with how to extract the data

7. The next step
W1:course follow-up, data science project
W2: mini-project
W3: course follow-up, lectures
W4: mini-project
W5: course follow-up, data science project

A note from "DELIVERING Happiness"

This is a note from "DELIVERING Happiness" from page 75 to 78, which I found these advices are applicable to my daily jobs.



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I noticed so many similarities between poker and business that I started making a list of the lessons I learned from playing poker that could also be applied to business:

Evaluating Market Opportunities
-Table selection is the most important decision you can make.
-It’s okay to switch tables if you discover it’s too hard to win at your table.
-If there are too many competitors (some irrational or inexperienced), even if you’re the best it’s a lot harder to win.-

Marketing and Branding
-Act weak when strong, act strong when weak. Know when to bluff.
-Your “brand” is important.
-Help shape the stories that people are telling about you.

Financials
-Always be prepared for the worst possible scenario.
-The guy who wins the most hands is not the guy who makes the most money in the long run.
-The guy who never loses a hand is not the guy who makes the most money in the long run.
-Go for positive expected value, not what’s least risky.
-Make sure your bankroll is large enough for the game you’re playing and the risks you’re taking.
-Play only with what you can afford to lose.
-Remember that it’s a long-term game. You will win or lose individual hands or sessions, but it’s what happens in the long term that matters.

Strategy
-Don’t play games that you don’t understand, even if you see lots of other people making money from them.
-Figure out the game when the stakes aren’t high.
-Don’t cheat. Cheaters never win in the long run.
-Stick to your principles.
-You need to adjust your style of play throughout the night as the dynamics of the game change. Be flexible.
-Be patient and think long-term.
-The players with the most stamina and focus usually win.
-Differentiate yourself. Do the opposite of what the rest of the table is doing.
-Hope is not a good plan.
-Don’t let yourself go “on tilt.” It’s much more cost-effective to take a break, walk around, or leave the game for the night.

Continual Learning
-Educate yourself. Read books and learn from others who have done it before.
-Learn by doing. Theory is nice, but nothing replaces actual experience.
-Learn by surrounding yourself with talented players.
-Just because you win a hand doesn’t mean you’re good and you don’t have more learning to do. You might have just gotten lucky.
-Don’t be afraid to ask for advice.

Culture
-You’ve gotta love the game. To become really good, you need to live it and sleep it.
-Don’t be cocky. Don’t be flashy. There’s always someone better than you.
-Be nice and make friends. It’s a small community.
-Share what you’ve learned with others.
-Look for opportunities beyond just the game you sat down to play. You never know who you’re going to meet, including new friends for life or new business contacts.
-Have fun. The game is a lot more enjoyable when you’re trying to do more than just make money.