Introducing: Efficiently
Efficiently: A blog dedicated to operationalizing data in a world of limited resources.
My name is Vinoo and I’ll be your guide, writer, and (likely) ranter throughout this series.
0. What this is
Recently, I had a friend recommend Austin Kelon’s Show Your Work. I read it over the course of a short plane ride and realized… it’s time to start showing my work. Publicly.
This blog series, at it’s core, is a collection of the the things that I’ve learned while building analytical tools, creating data products, and consuming data products. Mostly, it’s intended as a technical series for technical audiences, but I’m not sure where it’ll actually go.
But, at it’s core, this blog is me challenging myself to extract meaningful and applicable lessons from the challenges I’ve faced working in the data ecosystem for over a decade.
In short, this blog is a public forcing function for me to democratize the best practices I’ve learned along the way.
1. Why this, why now
We grew up in the golden age of data. The cloud migration was well underway. Organizations transformed and decisions became data driven. The modern data stack was cool, powerful, and new. The potential for compute was endless. Money was cheap and plentiful. It was worse to do nothing than spend 7 figures on building a data platform.
Then, things got real. The economic downturn hit… and it hit hard. Layoffs started. Money got tight. Many startups had to look up the word “profit” for the first time (joking, but not really).
In these hard times though, companies tend to focus on cutting only what they can “see.” Specifically, they cut office space, employee travel, and employee expense budgets. They cut marketing budgets, third-party contractors, and of course, sadly, employees.
All the while, their compute bills are increasing by an order of magnitude year over year.
The compounding cost of clouds is an existential threat for enterprises. Without appropriate capital to fund business operations and without the means of assessing the current cloud/data investments, organizations are left in a precarious position. Data practitioners need to know about this methodology because it can be the very element that saves their company from at best an unexpected bill and at worst a cession of business.
2. Who may benefit from this
YC just sent this to it’s founders.
A lot of scary things going on in this post, but the high level is that founders need to $ave Dat Money. This series is for you if your enterprise would like to $ave Dat Money.
3. Why me
I’ve gotten it wrong… a lot. And as such, have had to learn a lot.
I have always been fascinated by the power of data to drive business decisions, inform research, and improve our understanding of the world around us. My career has taken me from the tech sector to the financial sector. I’ve built analytical tools, sold data as a broker, consumed data from brokers, and most recently, help folks optimize their internal tech stacks.
That's where this blog comes in. My goal is to explore the ways in which we can use data more efficiently, both in terms of the resources we use to collect and process it, and in terms of how we use it to drive meaningful results.
4. Where I’ll start
I’m likely going to start with some of the areas I’ve worked personally with and tell (more than) a few stories along the way. I'll be covering topics ranging from data storage and management to data analysis and visualization, and sharing case studies and best practices from my own experiences and those of others in the industry.
I'm thrilled to have you join me on this journey, and I hope you'll find value in the content we'll be sharing.