Can you find Slovenia on a map? What else do you know about this Central European nation with 2.1 million people.
Should School Murals That Depict an Ugly History Be Removed?
In “These High School Murals Depict an Ugly History. Should They Go?” Carol Pogash writes:
In one of the murals, George Washington points westward over the dead body of a Native American. Another depicts Washington’s slaves, hunched over, working in the fields of Mount Vernon. These images aren’t in a museum exhibition but on the walls of a public high school.
In this famously left-of-center city, liberals are battling liberals over these Depression-era frescoes that have offended some groups.
In the debate over the 13 murals that make up “The Life of Washington,” at George Washington High School, one side, which includes art historians and school alumni, sees an immersive history lesson; the other, which includes many African-Americans and Native Americans, sees a hostile environment.
Sometime this spring, the school board will make a decision about the future of the massive frescoes that extend from the school’s entryway through its lobby, confronting students as they climb the stairs to their classrooms.
The works were created in the mid-1930s by Victor Arnautoff, a social realist, for the Works Progress Administration, an agency created under Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal that provided public works jobs for the unemployed during the Great Depression.
Arnautoff, who was born in Russia and taught at Stanford, was a Communist who embedded messages critical of the founding father in his murals. He depicted Washington, accurately, at a time when that was rarely acknowledged, as a slave owner and the leader of the nation that annihilated Native Americans. There are no cherry trees.
But to Amy Anderson, a member of the Ahkaamaymowin band of Métis who has been a catalyst in the campaign to remove the murals, they represent “American history from the colonizers’ perspective.”
Around the country in recent years, people have been questioning historical representations in public art. Confederate statues and monuments have been dismantled. And in September, San Francisco city workers removed a statue symbolizing the Catholic Church’s mission-era subjugation of Native Americans. But the Washington High frescoes present a different issue. What they symbolize is open to interpretation. Some see a subversive message about Washington’s failings; others see his glorification.
Students, read the entire article, then tell us:
— What do you recommend that the school do about the murals? Should they be removed? Explain your reasoning.
— The article mentions that Victor Arnautoff, the social realist painter who created the murals, intended for his work to be critical of Washington by including then-rarely-acknowledged details like Washington being a slave owner. Does this affect what you think about the murals? What about their being a product of the Works Progress Administration which employed artists during the Great Depression?
— The writer contends that the murals are different from the Confederate statues and monuments that have been dismantled in recent years because what the murals symbolize is open to interpretation. To what extent, if at all, do you agree? Does your answer affect what you think the school should do about the murals?
— How much does it matter that these murals are in a high school, where students from different backgrounds come to get an education? Would you feel differently about them if they were in a government office building, hospital or courthouse?
Students 13 and older are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.
Learning With: ‘Cursive Seemed to Go the Way of Quills and Parchment. Now It’s Coming Back.’
Before reading the article:
Do you know how to write in cursive? If so, who taught you this skill? When you write with a pen or pencil, do you print, write in cursive or alternate between the two? Do you have a signature that you use when you sign forms or other documents?
If you don’t write in cursive, is this a skill you wish you had? Why or why not?
Now, read the article, “Cursive Seemed to Go the Way of Quills and Parchment. Now It’s Coming Back,” and answer the following questions:
1. What role do the Common Core standards seem to have had in the demise in students’ learning to write in cursive? How many states have reintroduced the practice in the recent years?
2. The writer says that these efforts have reignited “a debate about American values and identity” and have exposed “intergenerational fault lines.” How are these ideas developed in the article?
3. What are some of the reasons offered for why some people believe American students should learn cursive?
4. How was writing in cursive once pitched as an act of patriotism?
5. What does research suggest may be the psychological and neurological benefits of handwriting? What do detractors say about those findings? Why?
Finally, tell us more about what you think:
The article says, “Some teachers say policymakers are out of touch with the realities of the modern classroom.” It then goes on to quote teachers who say the time it takes students to learn how to write in cursive interferes with more urgent demands. “Add typing skills, anti-racist pedagogy, add activism skills, add digital literacy” said Noelle Mapes, a third-grade teacher at a public school in Manhattan. “There are so many other things.”
How important do you think it is that students be taught to write in cursive? What priority, if any, should it take? What do you think of the skills Ms. Mapes suggested? Are they important? Place those skills — as well as any others you want to see added to elementary school curriculums — in order of importance. Add cursive writing where you think it belongs, if you would add it at all.
Word + Quiz: dearth
dearth ˈdərth noun
1. an insufficient quantity or number
2. an acute insufficiency
_________
The word dearth has appeared in 134 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on March 18 in “Scarecrow Video Has Survived This Long. Can It Hang On?” by Laura M. Holson:
Sure, most people no longer want to trudge to the video store on a Friday night, as they once did in droves. Streaming movies are available through on-demand cable, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and many other sources. But the emphasis tends to be on current titles, or TV series. Netflix, which pioneered renting DVDs by mail and streaming, has been moving steadily into original programming, for example.
Ms. Barr worries that a dearth of vintage movies means voices from earlier generations won’t be heard. She points to hard-to-find documentaries and little-known gems by black or gay writers and directors. “Who is making decisions about what titles get seen?” she asked. “I think it is important to not lose sight of the importance of movies. They reflect culture. They are cinematic history. It is important to keep these documents.”
_________
Udacity Lays Off 20% of Staff, Continues Transformation
- In new round of layoffs, Udacity cuts one fifth of its workforce.
- Measure is part of new leadership plan to turn company around.
- Other measures include restructuring leadership, downsizing offices.
- Class Central also notices that Udacity has frozen hiring, didn’t launch new scholarships, and hasn’t announced an Intersect Conference so far this year.
Earlier this week, Udacity laid off 75 employees with a view to reaching profitability, reports TechCrunch.
This is the third round of layoffs at Udacity in one year. In September 2018, they laid off 25 employees, primarily from their Germany office. And in November, they cut an additional 125, primarily from their Brazil office. Udacity now has about 300 full-time employees. In less than a year, they have laid off over 40% of their workforce.
Yesterday was my last day at @udacity. It has been an amazing 3+ years and I already miss my colleagues and friends. But! Starting today I’m getting back to something I love to do, create content. I’ll be teaching all the data science & machine learning things, so stay tuned!
— Mat Leonard (@MatDrinksTea) April 5, 2019
The layoffs are part of a broader restructuring plan engineered by Sebastian Thrun and Lalit Singh, respectively interim CEO and COO of Udacity. Thrun replaced Vishal Makhijani at the helm of the company in October 2018, and Singh joined in February 2019.
These changes of leadership and strategy were likely prompted by Udacity’s lackluster growth last year. In 2017, the company’s revenue grew by $40 million. But in 2018, it only grew by $20 million, which for a company valued at $1 billion may have fallen short of expectations.
(To learn more about Udacity’s 2018, head to Class Central’s in-depth year in review.)
Besides layoffs, the restructuring plan involves:
- Freezing Hiring: Last month, Udacity’s careers page listed 66 openings ranging from sales to devOps. Now, there are only 22, mostly enterprise-facing.
- Downscaling Offices: Udacity is closing some offices and downsizing others in the US, and reconsidering its office needs in other countries.
- Consolidating Offering: Udacity is homogenizing its course catalog across the various countries in which it operates, including the US, India, and Russia.
- Reorganizing Leadership: Udacity is simplifying its operating structure; only 4 executives now report to Thrun instead of 17 when he took over.
- Scrapping Programs & Services: Udacity cancelled its Cybersecurity Nanodegree and sunset its mobile apps.
- Putting On Hold Scholarships & Event: Udacity has neither launched new scholarships nor announced a 2019 Intersect Conference — in 2017 and 2018, it was held in March.
- Speeding Up Nanodegree Development: Udacity has revamped its approach to course development to make the process faster and more flexible.
And this last measure seems to be paying dividends; four months into 2019, Udacity has already released four Nanodegrees:
(For a fuller picture of Udacity’s offering, check Class Central’s Nanodegree pricing chart.)
Through this restructuring plan, Thrun hopes Udacity will “break-even or [become a] profitable company by next quarter.” In an email sent to his employees, he explains: “By bringing our costs in line with our revenue and refocusing our product strategy, we believe we can continue to grow […] while also achieving a break-even position.”
What is a Product Manager?
Jackie Bavaro, Product Lead at Asana, describes product management as “the best job you’ve never heard of.” While that may be the case, the popularity of product management has grown in recent years. Larger technology companies recognize that the best product managers may just be the people who have not yet heard of the role, but have the ability to wear many hats—and wear them well.
In this article, we’ll discuss the role of the PM throughout the entire product development process.
What is a product manager?
Product managers foster interdisciplinary thinking by collaborating with engineering, design, and strategy teams to ideate and eventually launch a great product. Their work is generally in alignment with company goals, but they also prioritize the best interests of the teams they manage and the users they create products for.
The job of a product manager involves maintaining a high-level focus, working with stakeholders, and prioritizing product success throughout the product development life cycle. That means coming up with an idea, iterating on that idea, and finally measuring its success.
What does a product manager do?
Product managers are responsible for overseeing the full product life cycle—from ideation to launch. Their success is largely dependent on not only the success of the product, but also how well the product fits into the larger goals of the company. They keep a high-level focus on turning ideas into reality, gauging competition factors, and guiding the overall direction of a product.
Turning an idea into reality
Before turning an idea into reality, PMs need to assess where the product currently stands:
- Is the product doing well?
- Are users requesting the addition, revision, or deletion of a feature?
- Is product engagement translating into the right amount of revenue, or could the company do better?
Product managers examine the current landscape before making decisions on officially bringing an idea to life. They also assess the resources available within their company to see whether or not the idea is feasible. Resources could be monetary, employee-based, or governed by timelines. Once the green light is given, PMs are able to move the idea forward.
Competition
In addition to improving a product, PMs also think about how they can distinguish their product from competitors who may have similar products.
In particular, they focus on how they can make the product not only viable to their existing audience, but also engaging to a larger user base. PMs may need to either conduct research in this area themselves, or ask user research and experience teams for help.
Course direction
Product managers keep the overall direction of the product in mind at all times. During iteration phases, PMs might make predictions on how successful a product will be in terms of engagement, revenue, and retention. They then evaluate these decisions with data teams and encourage their engineering team to make adjustments accordingly as the product is being built, and even after it has launched.
In addition to collecting metrics and examining them, PMs also think about how the product may benefit from market feedback or client partnerships. They also take into consideration issues that may arise relating to the economy, privacy, or legal compliance.
How product managers work with stakeholder management
While PMs are responsible for all aspects of the product, they do not work alone to build it. The majority of their work is spent communicating with other people in the company and rallying them together to help create the product. Product managers typically work with company executives, customers and clients, and the cross-functional team they supervise that is tasked with building the actual product.
Company executives
Product managers speak to top company executives to translate their desires and concerns for the company into a product focus. Executives may push back on a PM’s point of view, giving them more clarity into the company’s future goals, or encourage prioritizing of another area instead.
PMs should be well-prepared to communicate with executives, providing them with evidence on why a new feature added to a product may succeed or how the team they have can accomplish a launch that satisfies the company’s timeline.
Customers and clients
Product managers also solicit feedback and conduct reviews of product performance with their current user base. Since products are designed for a company’s customers and clients, PMs need to be aware of their user’s behaviors and how they engage with the product.
Audience analysis teams can help PMs better understand these behaviors and what they should focus on to make smarter decisions about the product.
Team
Product managers not only manage the product, but they also manage teams. Teams can be comprised of people from multiple disciplines.
At a tech company, teams are usually comprised of engineers, designers, and strategists. User research and data science teams may act as support to the team if PMs require more information on the product’s user base and metrics.
PMs are responsible for delegating tasks to a team. They think about the team’s constraints—in terms of skill set and timeline—while doing so.
Product success
The end goal that a PM has is for the launched product to be successful. In order to ensure product success, product managers first release a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and then proceed to measure its performance while continuing to hone the product.
Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
An MVP is the initial release of a product or a feature associated with a product. It includes only the essential features needed to make a product “work” and ignores additional features that may make the product look nicer.
Releasing only the bare bones of a product rather than a fully thought-out version allows PMs to see whether or not the product will actually be successful. This also minimizes the team’s time commitment and the allocation of company resources.
Measuring success
Product managers first measure the success of the MVP. While doing so, they take into consideration a number of metrics. These might include the number of users, screen time, engagement, or customer feedback.
Success is measured both quantitatively and qualitatively. If the PM and their respective team members believe that the MVP was successful according to the aforementioned metrics, they may choose to release another iteration that addresses more user needs.
Honing the product
After a product is released—especially if it’s successful—PMs and their teams work to keep iterating on the product, which can follow a waterfall, agile, or another method of development.
This may involve maintaining the product as is or figuring out new features to add to the product that would serve the user community. The job of a PM will continually involve refinement as the growing needs of users change and the market around the product develops.
In Conclusion
Product managers are vital to many companies, but they’re especially necessary in technology companies that work to maintain products used by billions of users. The need for PMs, especially those from varied backgrounds, is indeed growing, with companies such as Google, Uber, and Twitter offering Associate Product Manager programs.
If you’re interested in pursuing a career in product management at a tech company, it’s helpful to learn to speak the language of team members you might be working with. Codecademy’s Code Foundations path broadly covers the fundamentals of programming, web development, and data science, and it’s a great starting point for people with little to no technical background.
If you already well-versed in the basics and looking to refine your knowledge of the concepts product managers use every day, check out the Data Science and Web Development paths.
What’s Going On in This Graph? | April 17, 2019
Note: This is our final “What’s Going On in This Graph?” for the 2018-19 school year. To receive next year’s schedule, and learn about our first graph of the 2019-20 school year, be sure to sign up for our free newsletter.
Students
1. This graph compares the relative value of highly-paid baseball players using salary and a player’s WAR, a baseball statistic that summarizes a player’s total contributions to their team.
WAR stands for “Wins Above Replacement.” The greater the WAR, the better the player.
The graph originally appeared elsewhere on NYTimes.com. By Friday morning, April 19, we will provide the “Reveal” — the graph’s free online link, additional background and questions, shout outs to student comments and headlines, and Stat Nuggets.
After looking closely at the graph above (or at this full-size image), think about these three questions:
• What do you notice?
• What do you wonder?
What are you curious about that comes from what you notice in the graph?
• What might be going on in this graph?
Write a catchy headline that captures the graph’s main idea. If your headline makes a claim, tell us what you noticed that supports your claim.
The questions are intended to build on one another, so try to answer them in order. Start with “I notice,” then “I wonder,” and end with “The story this graph is telling is ….” and a catchy headline.
2. Next, join the conversation by clicking on the comment button and posting in the box that opens on the right. (Students 13 and older are invited to comment, although teachers of younger students are welcome to post what their students have to say or they can have their students use this same activity on Desmos.)
3. After you have posted, read what others have said, then respond to someone else by posting a comment. Use the “Reply” button or the @ symbol to address that student directly.
On Wednesday our collaborator, the American Statistical Association, will facilitate this discussion from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Eastern Time to help students’ understanding go deeper. You might use their responses as models for your own.
4. On Thursday afternoon, we will reveal more information about the graph at the bottom of this post. Students, we encourage you to post an additional comment after reading the reveal. How does the original New York Times article and the moderators’ comments help you see the graph differently? Try to incorporate the statistical terms defined in the Stat Nuggets in your response.
_________
More?
• Read our introductory post, which includes information about using the “Notice and Wonder” teaching strategy.
• Learn about how and why other teachers are using this feature, and use the 2018-19 “What’s Going On in This Graph?” calendar to plan ahead for the 25 Wednesday releases.
• Go to the A.S.A. K-12 website, which includes This is Statistics, resources, professional development, student competitions, curriculum, courses and careers.
What Has Your Sex Education Been Like?
Have you taken any sex education classes during your time in school? In what grade did they start? What topics have you covered each year?
Over all, do you feel you have gotten an adequate education around sex? Why or why not?
In “As Colorado Moves to Bar Abstinence-Only Sex Education, Teenagers Take the Lead,” Dan Levin writes about a new law that would require schools in the state to teach comprehensive, medically accurate sex education:
Last year, when Clark Wilson was in eighth grade, his sex education teacher repeatedly rolled a piece of tape on a table until it lost its stickiness, using words like “tainted” and “impure” to describe those who engage in premarital sex.
The lesson: “People are like tape and once they have sex they’re dirty and can’t have meaningful relationships,” said Clark, now 15 and a freshman at a Colorado high school in the Denver suburb of Highlands Ranch.
While sex education classes are not mandatory in Colorado, proposed legislation that is widely expected to pass would bar the state’s public and charter schools from abstinence-only education.
Clark was among several students who testified last month in support of the bill, which would also mandate teachings about safe sex, consent and sexual orientation, elements that have prompted a fierce backlash from those who argue they pose an attack on traditional family values and parental rights.
The comprehensive sex education bill, which passed the House this week and is headed to the Senate, would make Colorado the ninth state in the nation to require that consent be taught. Washington, D.C., also teaches consent.
Colorado, with its increasingly liberal cities but strong conservative footholds, is a microcosm of the larger national debate over sex ed. Across the country, 37 states require abstinence be covered or stressed, while only 13 require sex education to be medically accurate, according to the Guttmacher Institute, which studies reproductive health. In seven states, laws prohibit educators from portraying same-sex relationships positively.
In many schools, however, the focus on abstinence goes beyond just warning children about sexually transmitted infections or unplanned pregnancies. Often, students say, teachers tear off flower petals or pass around an object like tape, a stick of gum or a chocolate bar that becomes increasingly grubby as it’s touched.
Studies have repeatedly shown that abstinence-only education increases rates of teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, while comprehensive sex education lowers such risks. But according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, from 2000 to 2014, schools that required sex education dropped to 48 percent from 67 percent, with half of middle schools and more than three-quarters of high schools focusing on abstinence. Only a quarter of middle schools and three-fifths of high schools included lessons about birth control. In 1995, 81 percent of boys and 87 percent of girls reported learning about birth control in school.
In response to this news, The Edit, a newsletter written for and by college students and recent graduates, invited young people to share their sex ed experiences. Here’s what they had to say:
Shelby Scott, Knoxville, Tenn.
I was born and raised in Mountain Brook, Ala., which is an upper middle class community in the conservative Christian South. In ninth grade, health teachers showed pictures of late-stage STIs and we had an external speaker come to discuss sex more fully. The program she taught was staunchly abstinence only. The first demonstration she gave was the “dirty piece of tape,” in which we were told that having multiple sexual partners prevents your ability to have emotionally fulfilling relationships. While some students (especially those with more open-minded/realistic parents) knew the education we received was unhelpful, for other students it was legitimately harmful. After months of discussing whether they were ready and both consented, a close friend had sex with her college boyfriend. Later in the evening, I went over to her room and found her crying and repeating, “I’m a dirty piece of tape,” the message she internalized from our ninth grade health class.
Caleb Goldberg, Louisville, Ky.
My sex education class at a small private school in Louisville lasted between seventh and ninth grades (for reference, this is during 2012-15). It wasn’t an abstinence-only class, but it was pretty close. We learned extensively about STDs, while condoms and contraception were only mentioned in passing, and the emotional aspect of sex wasn’t, to my recollection, discussed at all. It was extremely heteronormative — gay men were briefly mentioned in the context of AIDS, and no other references to the L.G.B.T. community were made. I identify as more or less asexual so this inadequate education doesn’t really affect me too much, but I still think it would have been beneficial for me and my fellow students to have heard a more honest account of sexuality.
Linnea Peterson, Minnesota
The most comprehensive sex ed I ever got was actually provided by my church. Most people are horrified when they hear this, but my church is an anomaly. In the 1980s, we were the first large Lutheran church to be led by a female pastor, and, in 2012, we became the first large Lutheran church to be led by an openly gay pastor. My church-led sex ed was not the “don’t have sex or you’re going to hell” talk people sometimes envision. Rather, when I was in seventh grade, I went on a weekend-long retreat with my church that discussed healthy relationships, gender roles, sexual orientation, stereotypes, STDs, and birth control. The retreat certainly didn’t ensure that all of my relationships would be healthy (they weren’t), but it did much more than my public junior high or public high school did to equip me for the world of intimacy.
Amanda Haas, Westlake, Ohio
I went to Catholic grade school and high school in the suburbs of Cleveland. In fifth grade they taught us what sex was, and in eighth grade we talked more about STDs, pregnancy, and the value of waiting until marriage to have sex. In high school we learned about birth control, condoms, and looked more in depth about what sex was biologically. My teacher had a box where we could anonymously ask questions and made us all yell “Scrotum!” out the window to get the giggles out and make us more comfortable. I’m really thankful for the fact I had comprehensive sex education with an emphasis on abstinence, the emotional weight of sex, and the value of waiting for someone who cares about you. I think giving young people all the facts allows them to make better decisions. I’m personally still a practicing Catholic and at 23-years-old my boyfriend and I have been dating for three years without having sex.
Rebecca Oss, Yardley, Pa.
I’m a high school senior who goes to a public school with about 4,000 students. In my district, “health class” starts in fifth grade and goes to tenth grade, but only three years (fifth, seventh, and ninth) include sex ed. Ninth grade had 45 days of health, half being basically: “drugs are bad.” We talked about consent and how relationships can be abusive. We talked about a couple types of birth control. We were told there were three types of sex (vaginal, oral, and anal). We talked about porn and how it was not a realistic view of sex (though we were never given any information on what sex should really look like). Most of that class was about STIs, however. I am not sure if it was intentional or not, but a lot of what we covered seemed to be: “look at these disgusting diseases you could get from sex, so stay away!!!” There are some topics I really wish I had been taught, though. I wish we had talked about L.G.B.T.Q. relationships. I wish we had covered the fluidity of sexuality and gender too. And most importantly I wish we had had this class more often, so that I could more easily feel comfortable talking about these topics.
Zach Eisenstein, Washington, D.C.
As a young person starting to come to terms with my queer identity, I never benefited from a lesson or curriculum that I could even remotely see myself reflected in before college. When I got there, I lucked my way into a human sexuality course during my first semester. I actually learned about sex. I learned about enthusiastic consent. I learned that no penis is too large for a condom. But, most importantly, I learned that sex education is so much more than telling students to avoid “risky” behaviors that could lead to STIs or unintended pregnancies. My sexuality is not a risk. It’s just a part of who I am. And I should have learned that long before I got to college.
Students, read the entire article, then tell us:
— What has your sex education been like? Is it abstinence-focused or more comprehensive? What topics have you covered in your classes?
— What has been the most impactful experience — either positive or negative — you’ve had during your sex education? What made it so powerful?
— How do you feel about your sex education over all? For example, do you feel informed and empowered by your experience? Or confused and demeaned? Do you feel comfortable with your own body and sexuality? Do you feel prepared to have healthy relationships with others? Do you feel you have a good understanding of all the aspects of a sexual relationship — the social, emotional and biological? Why or why not?
— What topics do you wish you had learned more about in sex ed? Why?
— Do you think states should require that schools teach comprehensive, medically accurate sex education? Or should schools decide their own curriculums? Should parents be permitted to opt their children out of sex ed lessons? Why or why not?
Students 13 and older are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.
Learning With: ‘Darkness Visible, Finally: Astronomers Capture First Ever Image of a Black Hole’
Now, read the article, “Darkness Visible, Finally: Astronomers Capture First Ever Image of a Black Hole,” and answer the following questions:
1. Why was the announcement that astronomers had captured an image of a black hole big news? Why did many believe this was not possible?
2. What exactly is a black hole? Describe one in your own words.
3. Where is the black hole, Sagittarius A*? How far is it from the Earth? How does its mass compare to that of our sun?
4. Dennis Overbye, the author, writes, “The image offered a final, ringing affirmation of an idea so disturbing that even Einstein, from whose equations black holes emerged, was loath to accept it.” What does he mean by this statement? What was so disturbing to Einstein about the idea of black holes? How does the image confirm his predictions about the nature of them?
5. How does the Event Horizon Telescope work? What challenges did the Event Horizon team face in capturing the picture of the black hole? How is the image different from a traditional photograph?
Finally, tell us more about what you think:
— What is your reaction to the first image of a black hole presented to the world on Wednesday? Mr. Overbye says the black hole looks like the Eye of Sauron from “The Lord of the Rings.” What do you think of when you see it?
— “What a time to be alive,” Janna Levin, a cosmologist, said in response to the release of the image. Do you agree with her sentiment? Why is an image of an entity from 55 million light-years away from Earth useful? How does the discovery affect how you think about and understand the universe?
— There are still many unknowns about black holes, such as what is inside a black hole and how exactly you would die if you were to be sucked into one. Which of these is most intriguing to you and why?
— The image of the Sagittarius A* black hole has already become a popular meme. Scroll through these memes and then create your own original one using the image. The meme can be funny, poignant or inspiring, and should express your reaction to the extraordinary picture.
Ask a Data Engineer: Warby Parker Edition 👓
Last month, Codecademy and Warby Parker came together to work on a special Learn SQL from Scratch Capstone Project. It was during this time when I met Ryan Tuck, a Data Engineer at Warby, who played a major part in this partnership. So when he decided to drop by our office for the final QA round, I had to break out my notebook and ask some questions. Enjoy.
Hey Ryan, let’s start off with a question I’ve had for a while — what is a Data Engineer? (Is it similar to a Data Analyst or a Software Engineer?)
At Warby Parker, data engineers are responsible for creating and maintaining the plumbing required to support the data and reporting needs of the business. We use software engineering practices to automate the work of data cleaning, normalizing, and model building so that data is always ready to be consumed by data analysts in every department.
What languages/frameworks do you use at Warby?
On data engineering, we use Python as our general purpose programming language, as do most of the other teams in our Technology department. When it comes to databases, we use PostgreSQL for the majority of our SQL needs, and are beginning to use Amazon Athena and Google BigQuery for some of our larger datasets. We use Looker as our exclusive business intelligence entry point to all of this data.
What are some of the projects you worked on?
I’ve had the privilege of working with a lot of of smart people in every department at our company to help them solve their varied data needs, from reconciling financial data with the Accounting team to automating and modeling standardized performance metrics for our team of over 200 customer experience advisors.
As part of a team of five supporting the data needs of a rapidly growing company, I’ve tried where possible to focus on helping our analysts solve their own problems. This includes helping people learn Python and commit to our codebase, guiding the creation of data models in SQL, and encouraging people to submit pull requests to add features in Looker, our BI tool.
Seeing dozens of otherwise “non-technical” colleagues opening up PRs on a daily basis, and consequently being part of the democratization of tech that we value at Warby Parker, is probably the most rewarding “project” I’ve been a part of.
One project finished recently during our first annual “Hackweek” is called Pipes, which allows anyone at the company to easily move large amounts of data from wherever to wherever (Looker, Google Sheets, PostgreSQL, BigQuery, etc) on a regular cadence, or manually through a simple one-line chatbot interface. The adoption has been overwhelmingly positive and we’re looking to grow this sort of tooling out even more.
“We use software engineering practices to automate the work of data cleaning, normalizing, and model building so that data is always ready to be consumed by data analysts in every department.”
What got you into the data field?
I’ve always been drawn to analytical fields like math, and became pretty proficient in Excel during some internships in college. Once I had learned to program and learned more about data science and its applications in artificial intelligence, I knew that anything I could do to immerse myself in the world of data would be a step in the right direction.
Three and a half years ago, I landed a job as a junior software engineer at Warby Parker not fully knowing what I was in for, but am so glad I got the opportunity to help build tools to support an interesting and ever-changing data-driven culture here.
Where did you learn SQL and Python?
I had a background in C++, and was exposed to Python through an Intro to Data Science course. When Warby Parker hired me onto the Data team in 2015, I had never written a SQL query in my life, but picked it up quickly and within a few months started up internal SQL training classes, which I still teach on a monthly basis.
What does your tattoo say?
This is Bayes’ Theorem, which is an equation that describes how to update probabilities given new evidence. Two summers ago I worked on building a tool to help predict weekly fantasy football performance. Some colleagues suggested a Bayesian approach would be appropriate, since there aren’t really enough data points in an NFL season to be able to use statistical approaches that require larger datasets, and I’d want to regularly update my predictions after each player’s latest performance.
I did a deep dive into understanding the (simple) math underlying Bayes’ Theorem and came out of that experience with a whole new worldview, understanding my entire knowledge of the world as a big and intricate probabilistic model that I was continuously updating with every experience I ever have. It was pretty transformative, and I figured that was worth a tattoo.
What is a concept in SQL/Python that’s essential to your work?
Donald Knuth said, “Premature optimization is the root of all evil.” I’ve generally found this to be true, and try to live by it in my work. For example, I’ll generally prefer to keep a data model simple by rebuilding it for all time on a daily basis using a single SQL query instead of making a more complicated model that requires iteratively adding to a table, keeping track of state, updated timestamps, when something last ran, etc.
A wise man once said, “Duplicating data makes things go fast,” but databases are already impressively fast to begin with, without implementing anything to improve performance. Ultimately, I almost always approach a problem thinking about optimizing for my time over machine time, for readability over performance, and for introducing as little cognitive overhead as is required by the problem at hand. Only once performance issues or readability issues present themselves will some code be worth a rewrite.
Last question! Since you wrote Warby Parker’s internal SQL training courses, I know there gotta be some inner Curriculum Developer in you. Can you teach a SQL concept in 2 minutes?
Sure! Have you ever written a query that yields some result set and you think, “I’d love to query the stuff I just produced like it was a table?” Enter the WITH clause.
Suppose I have a mega query that gives the transaction summaries:
select
transactions.date as transaction_date,
sum(items.price) as total_cost,
count(*) as number_of_items
from
transactions
inner join
customers
on
customers.id = transactions.customer_id
inner join
transaction_items
on
transactions.id = transaction_items.transaction_id
inner join
items
on
items.id = transaction_items.item_id
Using WITH, I can create a temporary table within my query that I can SELECT from and treat it just like a regular old table.
I will put everything from the previous query in a parentheses and use WITH to give it the name transaction_summaries.
Then I’ll apply the date and customer filtering down below for a more readable query, to separate out all the JOIN logic from the actual WHERE filters that I want to apply on that data.
with transaction_summaries as (
select
transactions.date as transaction_date,
sum(items.price) as total_cost,
count(*) as number_of_items
from
transactions
inner join
customers
on
customers.id = transactions.customer_id
inner join
transaction_items
on
transactions.id = transaction_items.transaction_id
inner join
items
on
items.id = transaction_items.item_id
)
select
*
from
transaction_summaries
where
first_name = 'beyonce'
and
transaction_date > '2018–01–01'
order by
total_cost desc
limit
5
If you’re familiar with subqueries, this does a similar thing but makes the SQL far more readable, even if your query isn’t quite as performant as it would have been. This is essentially an implementation of the mantra “Don’t Repeat Yourself” that’s common in the world of programming.
Incredible. And love the SQL styling! 😍
Huge shout out to Ryan and the whole Warby Parker team for making this partnership happen. Special hat tips for behind-the-scenes support from:
- Lon Binder, Chief Technology Officer, Warby Parker
- Maddie Tierney, Executive Assistant, Warby Parker
- Kayla Robbins, Executive Assistant, Warby Parker
- Kaki Read, Senior Communications Manager, Warby Parker
- Isabel Seely, Senior Brand Manager, Warby Parker
It’s been an absolute pleasure. And of course, the fam at Codecademy. You know who you are. Couldn’t do it without you.
