Published Content | 13-4-2025
Self-created coding tutorials and popular science content from this week.
Reboot podcast (11-4-2025): The advent of the Internet and the WWW
This is ep.7 of the #Reboot podcast/vidcast from Hellenic Informatics Union (HIU). In this episode, the very first era of the Internet, a.k.a. ARPANET, is discussed and its evolution is analyzed in the context of both the social and the technical aspects of it. After a relatively short period of rapid progress, the World Wide Web is shaped via the work of Tim Berners Lee, with HTTP, URL and hypertext.
Data Science book writing
About two years ago an idea was hovering through my mind, a question actually: Why is that “traditional” project managers fail so gloriously in managing teams, especially in the Research and Development (R&D) field of work? I let it mature for a while, thinking that someone will eventually write a book or something about it. Two years have passed and no one did it, so I figured, well, I guess I will have to do that myself. After sending the proposal to only few top publishers, I was privileged enough to land a book contract with Elsevier, which was indeed my first choice for this endeavor.
The subject of the book will be simple: Managing and coordinating teams in the R&D environment, specifically in the domains of Data Analytics, Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence in general, where I have been working for more than two and a half decades as a professional. Specifically, it will focus on every aspect of teamwork from the first to the last day of a R&D project, including recruitment, roles, technical problems and solutions, managing risk, conflict resolution, iterations and feedback, expectation management, deadlines, priorities, planning for the future.
I’ve had the privilege to work with exceptional scientists, colleagues and friends and throughout these years I have identified key characteristics of efficient teamwork in challenging situations. Efficient project management is far from enough for building successful teams for R&D. There is no magic recipe for success, but there are definitely some common lessons to be learned.
Starting this July (2024), the full writing of the first draft is active. It took six weeks of preparation, material organization and time planning, and now the main work begins. This subject is a unique case of content and it needs special attention to detail and discipline. Instead of thinking what else can be included, it is more like deciding what I must leave out due to excessive length. The book is going to be in the order or 100k words or 220+ pages in the classic academic / textbook format and it will be published some time around next summer (2025).
Week 41: Incentives
Paying someone more is never an adequate incentive in the long run. Be clear about salaries, promotions and work schedules. Phrases like `competitive salary', `good prospects' or `flexible working hours' is next to useless for a newcomer. Overly high compensations for (expected) overly high workloads is not a strategy, it is a recipe for failure. Sooner or later the person will get burned out, frustrated or desperate to leave.
For more details, check out:
https://apneacoding.blogspot.com/2024/07/announcement-writing-new-book-in-data.html
https://youtube.com/shorts/NEPjVvOV_ts