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 build and lead high-performing engineering teams that ship distributed ML systems powering hundreds of millions of decisions every day.
• Professional interests: Software engineering, AI, machine learning systems, MLOps, distributed systems, data science, leadership, people management, advising, consulting
• 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 everything else.
• 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 I want 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 and (sometimes) others
• My personal tech stack - My daily drivers for work and personal computing

Recent posts

• My experience preventing and managing RSI (n=1) (27 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)
• Review: Man's Search for Meaning, by Victor E. Frankl (14 Sep 2018)
• ... 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.

Contact me

If you are interested in connecting with me, please get in touch using this contact form, which goes straight to my email. I’ll respond as soon as I can. Thanks!