The value of Data Science Infrastructure
A talk for CUSP students in 2017, a year after I'd finished the program and by then working at StreetEasy. My pitch: build your own small utility tools for the job in front of you, and be deliberate about what you choose to simplify. Two kinds of work earn the effort — what you do constantly, where shaving friction compounds, and what you do rarely, where the real cost is the cognitive load of remembering how. Smooth both; leave the rest alone.