Only A Model
Hi, I’m Ben Deaton. Thanks for stopping by! 👋
This site is a cross between a professional portfolio and personal blog. I use this space to explore anything and everything that interests me, hopefully with a discernible throughline. My views of the world are only a model; I’m trying to iterate toward the best ones. I view this site as a living/working document, written by me, for me.
Here’s my profile across several axes:
- Currently: I lead high-performing software teams that build distributed machine learning systems.
- Interests: Software engineering, AI, machine learning systems, data science, leadership, engineering systems, people management
- Work history: Startups, tech, consulting, national labs, academia. More here
- Georgia Tech Engineering PhD, MS, and BS
- Values: Empathy, rigor, ownership, openness, flexibility, aesthetics, vulnerability
- Places lived: Atlanta (current), Boston
- Married 23 years with three beautiful dependent life forms age 8 to 17
- I’m an amateur classical violinist. My one serious hobby that temporarily shuts off the outside world.
- My youngest child has an extremely rare de novo genetic disorder that has dramatically impacted our life. This instantly made me a rare disease advocate and my goal is to help other parents navigate similar journeys.
- Personality type: INFJ (Introverted, Intuitive, Feeling, Judging)
Evergreen / Working Documents
- Now - What I’m doing right now, current focus, etc.
- Things I Recommend - I care a lot about the design of everything things
- Useful Questions - To ask myself or others
Recent posts
- My experience preventing and managing RSI (n=1) (27 Apr 2020)
- MLSys 2020 Conference Recap (23 Apr 2020)
- Case-sensitive multiselect in VS Code (14 Apr 2020)
- The Gene: Reflections on the PBS documentary (13 Apr 2020)
- My current remote work setup (22 Mar 2020)
- Notes on Spaced Repetition Memory Systems (21 Feb 2020)
- Review of the Coursera Machine Learning course by Andrew Ng (16 Feb 2020)
- On Deleting Facebook and Rare Disease (09 Jun 2019)
- Recap: Southern Data Science Conference 2019 (24 Apr 2019)
- Five-year update: BOS to ATL, Engineering to Data Science, PPP2R5D (19 Apr 2019)
- ... and more in the archives
Etymology
The great masters do not take any Model quite so seriously as the rest of us. They know that it is, after all, only a model, possibly replaceable.
–C.S. Lewis
But you know where the name actually came from.