The hottest Optimization Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
Category
Top Technology Topics

Exphormer(Graph Neural Networks)

MLOps Newsletter • 39 implied HN points • 04 Feb 24
🕹 Technology Machine Learning Neural Networks Optimization Deep Learning Library
  1. Graph transformers are powerful for machine learning on graph-structured data but face challenges with memory limitations and complexity.
  2. Exphormer overcomes memory bottlenecks using expander graphs, intermediate nodes, and hybrid attention mechanisms.
  3. Optimizing mixed-input matrix multiplication for large language models involves efficient hardware mapping and innovative techniques like FastNumericArrayConvertor and FragmentShuffler.

Prompt engineering is spaghetti code

Sunday Letters • 59 implied HN points • 08 Oct 23
🕹 Technology AI Software Programming Computing Optimization
  1. Prompt engineering is not a lasting software discipline; it may fade away as technology improves. It's a reaction to a lack of computing resources, trying to make every use of AI efficient.
  2. Using AI tools should be approached like programming: break tasks into smaller pieces to handle them better. This is more effective than creating complex prompts that are hard to manage.
  3. It's better to focus on making something work well before worrying about cost or optimization. Don't stress about minimizing resource use until the solution is working reliably.
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[System design] Sharding : In and Out Explained

The ZenMode • 42 implied HN points • 16 Mar 24
🕹 Technology System Design Scaling Optimization
  1. Sharding is a technique to horizontally partition a data store into smaller fragments across multiple servers, aiding in scalability and reliability.
  2. Before sharding a database, consider options like vertical partitioning, database optimization, replication, and caching to improve performance without the added complexity of sharding.
  3. Different sharding strategies like Hash Sharding, Range Sharding, and Directory-Based Sharding have unique considerations and advantages based on factors like data distribution, queries, and maintenance.

[Solution]Problem 70: Pow(x,n) [Amazon]

Technology Made Simple • 59 implied HN points • 23 Dec 22
🕹 Technology Math Logic Optimization Recursion
  1. The post discusses a solution to Problem 70, which involves calculating a number raised to a power using math, logic, optimization, and recursion.
  2. The problem statement requires implementing a function that calculates x raised to the power n, with specific input-output examples provided.
  3. Constraints for the problem include specific ranges for x and n, highlighting the importance of handling edge cases in the solution.

Creatures That Cheat Their Creators

Mindful Modeler • 59 implied HN points • 14 Mar 23
🔬 Science Evolution AI Creatures Optimization Anecdotes
  1. Creatures evolved through digital evolution can surprise their creators by finding unexpected loopholes in their fitness functions.
  2. Optimization processes, like digital evolution, may not always align with what the creators intended, leading to unexpected outcomes.
  3. Lessons from the surprising behaviors of evolved creatures can be applied to machine learning and AI, highlighting the need for caution and adaptability in designing algorithms.

Fit then optimize

Sunday Letters • 159 implied HN points • 10 Apr 22
🕹 Technology Software Optimization Project management Engineering Product Development
  1. Always focus on finding the right fit for your project before trying to optimize it. It’s easier to make improvements once you know what works.
  2. Watch out for a messy situation where too many things need fixing. Start cleaning up gradually once you see your project gaining traction.
  3. Avoid creating overly complex systems before you understand the problem you're solving. Keep things simple and relevant to ensure usefulness.

Specifying objectives in RLHF

Democratizing Automation • 90 implied HN points • 02 Aug 23
🕹 Technology Machine Learning Artificial Intelligence Research Optimization Algorithms
  1. Reinforcement learning from human feedback involves using proxy objectives, but over-optimizing these proxies can negatively impact the final model performance.
  2. Optimizing reward functions for chatbots with RLHF can be challenging due to the disconnect between objective functions and actual user preferences.
  3. A new paper highlights fundamental problems and limitations in RLHF, emphasizing the need for a multi-stakeholder approach and careful consideration of current technical setups.

Look for the next bottleneck

Sunday Letters • 79 implied HN points • 23 Oct 22
🕹 Technology Optimization Disruption Innovation Education Medicine
  1. Optimization is a constant process in our daily lives. We look for ways to make things easier, faster, and cheaper to achieve our goals.
  2. Bottlenecks are points that limit the effectiveness of a system. Identifying these bottlenecks helps us understand what is holding us back.
  3. Disruption can happen when new technologies find a way around existing bottlenecks, leading to better solutions and opportunities. Staying curious and willing to change is key to innovation.

In praise of hard optimization

Sunday Letters • 59 implied HN points • 09 Jan 23
🕹 Technology Software AI Engineering Optimization Programming
  1. New AI models are exciting, but they come with their own challenges, like performance limits and the need for optimization. It's important for developers to tackle these constraints creatively.
  2. In the past, developers had to deal with strict limits on memory and processing power. Today, while we have more resources, financial constraints can also impact performance.
  3. Now is a good time to revisit basic computer science skills and focus on optimization. Solving tough engineering problems can be hard, but it’s also very rewarding.

The One Billion Row Challenge in Rust: Part 1

Art’s Substack • 3 HN points • 12 Jun 24
🕹 Technology Programming Benchmarking Optimization Rust
  1. The One Billion Row Challenge in Rust involves writing a program to analyze temperature measurements from a huge file, requiring specific constraints for station names and temperature values.
  2. The initial naive implementation faced performance challenges due to reading the file line by line, prompting optimizations like skipping UTF-8 validation and using integer values for faster processing.
  3. Despite improvements in subsequent versions, performance was still slower than the reference implementation, calling for further enhancements in the next part of the challenge.

Hot Topics #21 (Mar. 17, 2023)

The Merge • 19 implied HN points • 17 Mar 23
🕹 Technology AI ML Optimization Speech Synthesis Robotics
  1. GPT-4 is a new large-scale model by OpenAI that can accept image and text inputs to produce text outputs.
  2. PaLM-E is an embodied multimodal language model that incorporates real-world sensor data into language tasks.
  3. Meta-black-box optimization can discover effective update rules for evolution strategies through meta-learning.

Math for Computer Science [Math Mondays]

Technology Made Simple • 59 implied HN points • 26 Apr 22
🕹 Technology Machine Learning Mathematics Software Development Statistics Optimization
  1. Focus on Calculus for software development: Understand precalc topics like functions, transformation, and algebra well.
  2. Importance of Probs and Stats: Learn to think in a Bayesian context, focus on probabilistic thinking.
  3. Value of Linear Algebra: Grasp foundational concepts, computational side less important for traditional software development.

Math, Where are the static types?

Ron Friedhaber • 3 HN points • 26 May 24
🔬 Science Math Optimization Python
  1. Math notation focuses on simplification, not optimization, unlike in computer programming where efficiency is crucial.
  2. In math, statements are mostly immutable and remain so until proven true, contrasting with programs that are mutable to accommodate bugs and user requests.
  3. Python initially succeeded with dynamic typing for prototyping but has gradually shifted towards typed Python, reflecting a broader trend in the language's evolution.

Power Function in logarithmic time [Technique Tuesdays]

Technology Made Simple • 39 implied HN points • 09 Aug 22
🕹 Technology Programming Algorithms Interviews Tutorials Optimization
  1. Optimizing the power function using logarithmic time can be a game-changer, making computations quicker and efficient.
  2. Understanding and applying mathematical tricks like leveraging even and odd numbers can significantly reduce the number of instructions needed to solve a problem.
  3. Learning to optimize algorithms using divide and conquer techniques, such as in the power function example, can enhance problem-solving skills and overall coding proficiency.

Geometric Constraints on Computing

Bzogramming • 30 implied HN points • 29 Jan 24
🕹 Technology Computing Physics Architecture Optimization Future Trends
  1. The physical constraints of computing, such as distance and volume, significantly impact performance and efficiency.
  2. Parallelism at different scales within a program can affect latency and performance, offering opportunities for optimization.
  3. Considerations like curvature of computation, square-cube law, and heat generation play a crucial role in the design and limitations of computer chips.

Reduce memory of graph traversal by marking spot as visited instead of using a set[Technique Tuesdays]

Technology Made Simple • 39 implied HN points • 02 Aug 22
🕹 Technology Coding Optimization Algorithms Data Structures Tech Education
  1. In graph traversal, reducing memory usage by marking spots as visited instead of using a set can optimize your code and help you move from O(n) space complexity to O(1) complexity.
  2. This technique is straightforward to implement, takes no extra space, and can be a significant improvement in graph traversal algorithms.
  3. When implementing this technique, be cautious about the value used to mark visited cells and always confirm with your interviewer about input data type to avoid conflicts.

[Solution]Problem 38: Power Function[Stripe]

Technology Made Simple • 39 implied HN points • 20 May 22
🕹 Technology Math Logic Optimization Recursion
  1. The problem focuses on implementing a power function without using built-in functions, showcasing the importance of base mathematical operations.
  2. Starting with a simple brute-force solution can lead to more efficient solutions and impress interviewers by demonstrating a structured problem-solving approach.
  3. Optimizations can be made by leveraging mathematics to improve the linear time complexity of the solution.

Problem 38: Power Function[Stripe]

Technology Made Simple • 39 implied HN points • 19 May 22
🕹 Technology Math Logic Optimization Recursion
  1. The post discusses implementing a power function that calculates x raised to the power n without using built-in functions, focusing on math, logic, optimization, and recursion.
  2. Examples of the power function implementation are provided with input-output pairs to demonstrate how it should work.
  3. There is a special request for feedback and sharing of topics for future focus, along with encouragement to explore additional content and subscribe for further tips and assistance.

[Solution]Problem 36: Container with Most Water[Two Sigma]

Technology Made Simple • 39 implied HN points • 06 May 22
🕹 Technology Coding Finance Problem Solving Optimization Algorithms
  1. Maximizing the area of a container with water involves maximizing both its width and height, which leads to utilizing a technique like Two Pointers for an optimized solution.
  2. For the container problem discussed, starting with two pointers at the ends and progressively moving them towards each other to increase width helps in filtering out low width and height combinations.
  3. A key optimization technique known as 'Artem's Rule' states that if a > b, then a > all numbers lesser than b, which can be a foundational concept for various interview problem optimizations.

Transformer inference tricks

Artificial Fintelligence • 16 implied HN points • 23 Nov 23
🕹 Technology Optimization Quantization Inference
  1. Implement a KV cache for the decoder to optimize inference speed in transformers.
  2. Consider using speculative decoding with a smaller model to improve decoder inference speed when excess compute capacity is available.
  3. Quantization can be a powerful tool to reduce model size without significant performance tradeoffs, especially with 4-bit precision or more.

Elaboration of the PostgreSQL sort cost model

Conserving CPU's cycles ... • 1 HN point • 01 Jul 24
🕹 Technology Database Optimization Development Software Estimation
  1. Column order matters in the PostgreSQL sort cost model, impacting execution time significantly. Choosing the optimal order of sorting columns can vastly affect computational efforts.
  2. Proposed modifications to the cost model aim to consider the number of columns in the sorting tuple and the number of duplicates, providing additional tools for query plan optimization.
  3. Adjusting the PostgreSQL optimizer's cost model involves balancing costs for various operations, taking into account factors like extended statistics, column order, and the complexity of sorting.

Problem 2: Find all occurrences of Substring Solution [Microsoft] (Example of Solutions in Paid Version)

Technology Made Simple • 39 implied HN points • 23 Aug 21
🕹 Technology Coding Algorithms Hashing Optimization
  1. When solving problems, start with a simple solution even if it's not optimal. It's better to have a working brute-force solution than no solution at all.
  2. Optimizing code involves identifying and eliminating redundant parts. For instance, in string matching problems, consider using techniques like hashing to improve efficiency.
  3. The Rabin-Karp algorithm is a rolling hash function used for string searching. It involves using hashes to compare substrings efficiently, reducing false positives and improving overall performance.

AI Risks and Reverse Reasoning

ppdispatch • 2 implied HN points • 06 Dec 24
🕹 Technology AI Security Software Data science Optimization
  1. ReVersion is a cool new way to create images that keep specific object relationships, allowing more creative flexibility.
  2. There's a growing concern about malicious AI, and strategies are being developed to protect against potential security threats.
  3. WebAssembly is enhancing AR and VR technology by making it faster and more compatible across different devices.

How to Create a Killer Landing Page for Your SaaS Product

Friends Of SaaS • 14 implied HN points • 09 May 23
💼 Business Marketing Design Tools Optimization Content Marketing
  1. To create a killer landing page for your SaaS product, focus on first impressions like design, headlines, and compelling content.
  2. Include social proof like customer testimonials and showcase to influence others' decisions.
  3. Utilize tools like landing page generators, A/B testing, and email marketing tools to enhance your landing page and optimize conversions.