this year
• i survived
• gained 30k followers
• did not relapse into depression
• appeared in the new york times
• and popular mechanics
• and garnered no less than 5 unfavorable mentions in the right wing media
• exercised regularly
• had two positive interactions with a dean of Harvard (a dramatic increase from zero all previous years)
• successfully championed the idea of a family group chat!
• published two papers
• managed to fulfill my social obligations to others with a minimum of acrimony
• established a pretty solid theme for my office decor
• was followed by @wtgowers, @nntaleb and @NateSilver538 (a relatively large number of intellectual heroes for one year)
• assembled a new computer from parts
• cut down my own christmas tree (a stunning achievement for a Caribbean man)
• stood alone on a moonlit street as a pack of three very wolf-like coyotes ran past
it wasn't all great. i failed my covid test — but i can always retake it next year!
• • •
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When academic experts like me try to share our knowledge on social media, we attract our own special kinds of reply guys (and gals!).
Here's my list of academic reply guys! 👇
The Traffic Cop. This type wants you to "Stay in your lane!". You can use social media or you can know what you're talking about but you can't do both! The traffic cop understands that democratic debate works best when everybody involved is ignorant.
The Trash Panda. The trash panda is very picky and will only consume information from unofficial sources. Everything else is fake news! People with PhDs, Government officials, World recognized experts. BAD! Facebook posts, WhatsApp viral videos, Youtube comments. GOOD!
These are the languages I'm learning for my "Kareem Can Code!" project (#kareemcancode):
Bash, C, C++, Clojure, CSS, Emacs, Fortran, Go, Haskell, Java, Javascript, Julia, LateX, Mathematica, Matlab, Programming Language Theory, Python, R, SAS, Scala, SQL, Stata, Swift, VBA, Vim
The first language is going to be Julia starting on January 4th! 😄 I picked it by randomly shuffling the languages but I think my Julia-loving followers will be very happy with this outcome.
Here's an FAQ on the project. Follow me if you think it's a fun project and want to hear about my reactions to all the different languages!
I'm narrowing down my list of languages to try out in 2021! What do you think of list? Anything on the MAYBE/NO pile that should be a YES! Anything on the YES that should be a NO. Let me know. Make the case in the comments!
The logic of the project is I want to expand my horizons as a programmer. None of this intended to be productive in anyway other than expanding my mind to new possibilities.
I'll be tweeting about it so follow me if you want to see how the experiment turns out. Also, I'll be using the hashtag #kareemcancode
People keep pinging me about "irregularities" in the election. I guess they figure I'm a straight shooter which is flattering. OK. You want my raw opinion. Let’s go. You might want to sit down for this one.
The design of the US electoral system is IDIOTIC. So...WEIRD, CONTRADICTORY results are just expected behavior.
If the United States of America wanted a reasonable electoral system with reasonable outcomes, they wouldn't have FIFTY DIFFERENT STATES with FIFTY DIFFERENT SYSTEMS.
I think I echo the sentiments of many people of color in tech when I say I'm waiting...waiting to see what Google's level of interest is in making things right with @timnitGebru after forcing her out in such a callous way.
I'm sure I'm not the only visible person of color in tech who's gotten a feeler or two from a big tech company. Speaking from experience, such overtures can be rather flattering but I've always sensed the inherent danger.
Speaking truth to power is easy as a free agent and dangerous when that power is the source of your next paycheck.
I was disappointed to hear the news that @timnitGebru was fired from her job as co-lead of the Ethical Artificial Intelligence Team at Google effective immediately.
There are a lot of reasons for my disappointment about @timnitGebru's firing but the most prominent one is representation matters. I get that things are not always going to work out but I like to see our leaders and pioneers treated well.
I know that this kind of unceremonious firing is business as usual in tech but presumably having an Ethical Team at all suggests a commitment (or at least an interest in committing) to not doing business as usual.