Hello Mathew

With the awesome demo of Google Duplex I/O 2018, I got another chance to think about AI and the future. While a lot of buzz may be made about this technology, I was trying to get my finger on what may be the true potential of this technology and how it may get integrated into our everyday lives. For one, the top level consumer IT products such as those from Google are already making use of AI. One example is that of Google Photos and it’s ability to search in images with astounding ease and accuracy. However, beyond that, I must confess I make little use of AI in my day-to-day life. ...

In my mind, humility is an essential virtue necessary to progress in studies. Imagine the study of Mathematics. The more earnestly you pursue the more you find what you don’t know. This can be a agonizingly intimidating and disorienting experience. Those are the times when you realize that if just understanding what is already known is difficult, how more would it be to contribute to the unknown. Do I, with my modest abilities, even have a place in the tall order of the truly gifted people ? What good can be a student if he has lost the motivation to proceed. ...

(This is the first post in the “Hello Mathew” series. The aim of this series is to share the richness of a professional software engineer’s life with budding engineers. I hope that some of the experiences I share will encourage others to embrace programming as their passion) Data Structures and Algorithms are essential topics in most software engineering job interviews (at least in the early years). However, this is an aspect of the profession that is sometimes overlooked. It’s especially true with people who came to programming through a “build it” approach. Think of what draws you the most to programming. Is it that you can build amazing things in the computer ? If so, contrast with someone else for whom programming is more about solving difficult puzzles or tasks. There are higher chances that a “build it” person might overlook the topic of algorithms. ...