Ari Zilnik

My most recent theme on January 10 was inspired by time traveling to 1999. I wanted to bring a retro flare to my presentation, so I transformed my slides into a 1999 desktop experience based on screenshots from the past.

It may be surprising to the academic community to know that only a tiny fraction of the code in many machine learning systems is actually doing “machine learning”. When we recognize that a mature system might end up being (at most) 5% machine learning code and (a…

I started the day ready to jump right back in and get this feature working. Hopefully I’ll figure it out, and end the day feeling productive. And if I don’t? There’s always tomorrow.

…o Raymond and I worked on one of my favorite projects to date, one that led me to experience my own ikigai. This Japanese term is defined as the place where one’s passion, mission, vocation, and profession intersect; what some would say the reason to get up in the morning — literally me in 2008. I would eagerly wake up, and on the days I had to bike, I’d carry my bike d…

Sometimes our emoji turned out more comical than intended and some have a backstory. For example, Raymond reused his happy poop swirl as the top of the ice cream cone. Now that you know, bet you’ll never forget. No one else who discovered this little detail did either.

Whether you like it or not, whether you approve it or not, people outside of your design team are making significant design choices that affect your customers in important ways. They are designing your product. They are designers.

If you consider learning something you hated, you’d better to make sure the knowledge is practical enough to apply to your work.

…ere to focus. We’ve all been told, “Winners never quit, and quitters never win.” But it’s not true. Winners quit all the time. They quit so often they become good at it. They develop keen judgement about what to quit and when.

…hieved everything that you want to achieve with this hit, here’s to you — the first round is on me. If your goal is growth, if you want to turn this win into more success, taking the time to catch your breath is the wrong strategy. Like, really wrong.