Learning barometers, startup cities, and algorithms

Hi nerds -

I salute you from Miami, the first city to release their own crypto, MiamiCoin ($MIA), and leading the rising new wave of startup cities.

As we start off a new month 🌈, I want to share with you the answer to the question I get the most often: “What exactly is it that Software Engineers do?”. You can find the short read here.

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3 brain farts

👩🏻‍🏫 Lifelong Learners: One of the best questions to ask people is “how do you learn?”.

This question acts as a barometer for a future employee, friend, or romantic partner, as we can forecast people’s future performance based on how they’ve set up their skills development process.

• How do they take notes?

• Where do they go to find the information?

• Do they share what they’ve been learning for feedback and iteration?

Knowing how to learn is worth more than any qualification or past achievement because it proves the person is a lifelong learner. Today it's less about the person's CV, and more about how quickly they can build new assumptions and break down the old ones.

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🏘 Startup Cities: Cities are going through a huge transition as remote work is changing the way spaces are designed.

Working from anywhere means people are voting with their feet and migration status. Be it urban or rural, American or European, the one thing that’s certain is that talent is leaving cities with outdated and fragile building blocks and moving to spots that are innovating and aligned with their values.

Outdated cities are rapidly becoming an unsustainable business model. And when the world is your competition, the rise of startup cities is well underway.

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🧠 I/O [Inputs & Outputs]: Machine learning algorithms imitate how our brains work. By replacing neurons with nodes, experiences become the data inputs that artificial intelligence models use to predict outcomes.

Machine learning:

• takes data as input

• trains itself to understand patterns in the data

• outputs useful predictions for decision-making.

Our brains:

• take experiences as input

• train itself to understand patterns in the data

• outputs the reactions and habits we practice everyday.

By studying machine learning, it becomes clear that the outputs in our lives are always based on the data we feed it with. That’s why we become what we focus on, and why having a healthy digital diet is crucial to success. Watch what you feed the greatest compounding machine of all, your brain!

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2 intellectual goodies

“Feedback is a gift. Inconsistency is growth. The more of your imperfections you accept, the less imperfect you will be.”

~ Gagan Biyani​

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“Cyberspace consists of transactions, relationships, and thought itself, arrayed like a standing wave in the web of our communications. Ours is a world that is both everywhere and nowhere, but it is not where bodies live.”

~ A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace, presented by John Perry Barlow in the World Economic Forum of 1996 when the internet was just born. The piece is one of my favorite writings out there.

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1 funky audio

​Base CS has become one of my favorite podcasts because it goes through Computer Science concepts in a super easy-to-understand analogies and examples.

Whether you’re a bootcamp graduate or someone who's simply interested in learning more about how computers work, this podcast is great for your learning commute.​

Thanks for reading.

As always, feel free to connect by hitting reply and sharing a juicy thought 💡.

We all help the curious community grow.

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Best,

Jules 🤸🏻‍♂️