The Joe Reis Show

Just wrapped up a couple of days at the CDO/CAIO Summit in Boston. There are a lot of corporate mandates to "do AI", but also a disconnect in the support and empowerment required to succeed. I unpack some observations of this disconnect, and why it reminds of of the South Park Underpants Gnomes - "AI...?...Profit"

Eleanor Thompson, a vendor partnerships expert, shares insights on starting and improving partnership programs. Topics include the impact of partnerships on sales, characteristics of good and bad certifications, learning from experienced individuals, navigating the modern data stack, the role of partners in business, the importance of niche specialization for consultancies, and setting expectations and communication in partnerships.

Ben Rogojan, aka Seattle Data Guy, needs no introduction. He's a force of nature in the data engineering content world. We chat about his origin story (sort of like a superhero), content creation, consulting, cooking, and much more.

You may have heard of Live Action Role Playing (LARP), where people dress up like fantasy characters and sword fight in a park or a Wal Mart parking lot. Some data teams LARP too... Data LARPs are a real thing, often identified by pretending to do "data stuff", while never actually pushing anything into production. Are you Data LARPing? If so, what can you do? Listen and find out.

Matt Harrison is the author of many of the most successful Python books, including Effective Pandas, Effective XGBoost, The Machine Learning Pocket Reference, and many more. I consider him the top author of Python books and content on the planet. He stopped by my house to chat about self-publishing technical books, the pros and cons of using a publisher, book piracy, and much more. We both talk about our experiences as best-selling technical authors, and don't hold back in this wide ranging and very candid conversation. Enjoy! Note - my audio got a bit clippy in spots. Sorry if I blew up your speaker.

Karin Wolok and I chat about all things devrel - what it is, why it matters, the good the bad, and everything in between. We also talk about her time in the music industry, which is a fascinating side thread. Karin is amazingly smart, energetic, and fun to talk with. Enjoy! Note - this was recorded right after the awesome DEWCon, the premier data engineering conference in Bangalore, India. Shoutout to everyone there!

Like most of you, I spent last weekend and the earlier part of this week following the OpenAI drama. Plot-twists galore! Every minute seemed like a new adventure. In the midst of the plot twists and turns, I noticed quite a few people saying, "This was all predictable", and then offering prognostications, most of which turned out to be very wrong. If even the OpenAI insiders couldn't figure out what was going on, how would the person on the street? It's a good reminder that you need to approach the world with a sense of humility and try not to be a know-it-all. Don't be afraid to say "I don't know."

I recap two events from this week - Matillion's Data Unlocked and the first MLOps Community event in Silicon Valley, hosted at Coactive.ai's office. Lots to unpack in 8 minutes, so let's get going.

Peggy Tsai joins me to chat about a ton of hard topics. We chat about how to set up Chief Data Officers for success (not easy), data maturity, data and ESG, and a ton more. Enjoy this very wide-ranging chat.

Katharine Jarmul and I chat about the Biden AI Executive Order. Enjoy!