Why Loss and Accuracy Metrics Conflict?

A loss function is used to optimize a machine learning algorithm. An accuracy metric is used to measure the algorithm’s performance (accuracy) in an interpretable way. It goes against my intuition that these two sometimes conflict: loss is getting better while accuracy is getting worse, or vice versa. I’m working on a classification problem and once again …

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Spell Out Convolution 1D (in CNN’s)

I’m working on a text analysis problem and got slightly better results using a CNN than RNN. The CNN is also (much) faster than a recurrent neural net. I wanted to tune it further but had difficulties understanding the Conv1D on the nuts and bolts level. There are multiple great resources explaining 2D convolutions, see …

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Management by Counting on 110% Effort

There’s a massively delayed subway construction project in Espoo, Finland. Based on the public info, the project seems to be a mess of mismanagement. In a discussion regarding the project’s management style, a friend of mine quipped: You know these managers telling their team will get this done by pulling a few all-nighters, or that she’ll be able …

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Freelance Journalists Should Be In Twitter

Last Sunday, I read an interesting article in a print magazine. It’s a rare occasion nowadays so I turned back to the story’s first page to find out the writer’s name. Then I opened the Twitter application on my smartphone. I’ve learned that Twitter is the best way to follow interesting writers, journalists and essayists. You’ll type …

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Content Marketing by a Stock Exchange

The CEO of a public company tweeted today about an interview. In the interview, the president of Nasdaq Helsinki sets up a portable studio and dicusses with Marimekko’s CEO Mika Ihamuotila about issues that are interesting to shareholders and traders. Great stuff! Finally a business that makes real, original content to engage its customers. This is not just a …

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