Back to writing after a 3-year hiatus with a focus on my ML Journey
989 days is a pretty long break since my last blog. There’s something unusually different about unfinished writing projects, compared to any other type of work out there. The energy needed to commit to it and the heavy expectation to write meaningfully and write well. I think part of the reason is the value we anticipate receiving from writing is different from other projects whose value can be easily calculated and measured.
A lot of us can relate starting something new and excited then hoping to run on those moments of creative energy. So over time, this desire withered and I focused on what came easily and naturally to me, writing code, picking up new technical skills and finally found a niche I loved in the AI & Machine Learning field.
Recap:
I wrote my first story in May 2018 and then proceeded to write 6 more that year with a series of blogs covering the SaaS applications I had built. Much of my initial blogs covered a wide range of topics, like a few technical intros and snippets on using terraform, AI apis and software dev with Laravel but this approach felt short handed and didn’t produce the value I hoped for hence why I stopped.
Hold up, Who are you?
I’m a Cloud Technical Account Manager at Google with a growing speciality in AI/ML. I’m a self-taught technology futurist with a reasonable caffeine addiction appreciation with the goal to leverage what seems impossible and distant capabilities, to make it a reality and push the boundaries of our imagination in realizing what is possible within the technology field, with AI at its foundation.
What have you been up to?
Since January 2020, I’ve switched careers, dived deeper into AI/ML as a professional path, learned how to make lattes, travelled and picked up photography too.
From 2017–2020, I focused on building SaaS apps with Laravel which eventually led to using more cloud capabilities on AWS and GCP. Since the last blog post, I’ve switched careers from working at a supply chain software company to Google in December 2020 as a Cloud Technical Account Manager.
At Google, I spent a lot of time learning and focused on building a core technology foundation with certifications in the PCA, Data Engineering and Machine Learning followed by small projects to build my portfolio of work and showcase what I’ve done. I’ve found tons of inspiration from many talented team members and soaked up as much as possible. I’ve also kept a list of all the books (similar to the 2018, 2019 lists) i’ve read over the past 2 years and will be sharing the 2020 to 2022 reads.
Additionally, I picked up new personal hobbies like snowboarding, traveling & photography while working on capturing the perfect latte art as a home barista. If you love coffee, then you’ll definitely dig my coffee insta (coffeeWithPauly)
What kind of content will you write about?
I’ll provide content on AI/ML focusing on BigQuery ML, Auto ML, Tensorflow, easy breakdowns, easy tutorials and breakdowns, integrating AI into existing apps, growth advice on what’s worked well for me and other things I’ve learnt in my ML journey.
How frequently will you publish?
For now, I’ll do this twice a month and I’ll also post on my instagram channel (pauly.ai) so check it out.
Do you have any sneak peaks?
Yeah, these five blogs are ready, and will be released soon. Links will go up by the end of this month:
1. Here are 3 tips to starting your Machine Learning Journey
2. What’s the ML exam about? 6 things to know.
3. I failed my ML certification. Now what? 6 things you should do next.
4. I passed my ML certification. What’s next?
5. Five Tips for passing Google’s Machine Learning Certification Test
Thanks for reading.
