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Andrew Weeks

@meloncholy.bsky.social
80 followers 244 following 99 posts

Product data scientist in fintech. Mostly lurking while I try to find my voice again. I help run PyData London.

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Andrew Weeks @meloncholy.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
I’ve seen great results getting an LLM to write thorough and detailed prompts for another LLM. It’s great to see this area explored in a much more thorough and systematic way.
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c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
I LOVE when science is applied to "toddler questions" like "Why is the sky blue?" or "Why is ice slippery?" Because the answers can be so SUPRISING. Let's dig into recent revelations about how ice skates work & why tires skid across black ice. First, we'll dismiss 3 VERY GOOD hypotheses as wrong.
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Cat Hicks @grimalkina.bsky.social · 05/02/2026
I've been in SF for four days and on each day I've had multiple conversations where people (self included) express deep feelings, fear, wonder and worry about their skills being replaced or (this is less named explicitly but an assumed driver I think) no longer valued by others. Big threats to feel
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Tyler Burch @tylerjamesburch.com · 01/02/2026
The better LLMs get, the more data scientists are going to find out the truth.
Always has been meme. 
“Wait, domain knowledge is the most valuable thing a data scientist can have?”
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Ross Mudie @rmudie96.bsky.social · 18/01/2026
Must read. I’ve spent much of the past year visiting Big Locals, and have never been more certain that its model would deliver significant results if backed at scale (as the government is doing with Pride in Place) It is remarkable what some places have done given just a little money and time.
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Andrew Weeks @meloncholy.bsky.social · 18/12/2025
Arthur Ganson’s “Machine with Concrete” The magic of gears: the input shaft is driven at 200 rpm, but the output shaft will take over two trillion years to make one turn. So the final gear is embedded in a block of solid concrete. Via @kottke.org makezine.com/article/craf...
makezine.com
Arthur Ganson's "Machine with Concrete" - Make:
Arthur Gansen's kinetic sculpture includes a gear train that will take well over two trillion years before the final gear makes one turn.
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Hilary Mason @hilarymason.com · 16/12/2025
"Synthetic Panels" make no sense. The LLM is trained on data from a particular point in time. This is the same as querying the distribution of responses from an LLM with built-in assumptions about what the distribution can look like. Well done surveys are designed for the opposite.
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Jessica Rosenkrantz @nervousjessica.bsky.social · 20/11/2025
Radiolaria are microscopic unicellular sea creatures that create skeletons from silica. Their skeletons are among the most beautiful and complex natural microstructures, resembling elaborate filigree. blog post: n-e-r-v-o-u-s.com/blog/?p=9861
four radiolaria sculptures sitting on a black surface
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PyData London @pydatalondon.bsky.social · 22/10/2025
It's nearly that time again! Join us on Tue 4 Nov for the 101st PyData London meetup. Using Hugging Face's smolagents framework to create a Fantasy Premier League AI Agent - @geirfreysson.bsky.social No More Boilerplate: Data-Driven Testing Made Easy - @feregri.no www.meetup.com/pydata-londo...
meetup.com
PyData London - 101st Meetup, Tue, Nov 4, 2025, 7:00 PM | Meetup
**Venue**: Riverbank House, 2 Swan Ln, London EC4R 3AD **Please note**: 1. 🚨🚨🚨A valid photo ID is required by building security. 🚨🚨🚨 2. This event follows the **[Nu
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Andrew Weeks @meloncholy.bsky.social · 13/10/2025
Seeing flowers from my new aster for the first time is a real autumn treat!
Close up of pink aster flowers leaning out of a vertical garden plant box. The flowers are new: some have emerged but many are still buds. Another close up of pink aster flowers a few days later, now bathed in late afternoon sunlight. More flowers have emerged giving a beautiful crowded display of daisy-like pink flowers with yellow centres.
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Dean Wampler @deanwampler.com · 09/10/2025
I recommend this post from @simonwillison.net: simonwillison.net/2025/Oct/7/v... He lists the engineering skills required to use AI-generation most effectively to build quality software, based on his experience using AI on his projects. In short, we can't replace software engineers with vibe coding
simonwillison.net
Vibe engineering
I feel like vibe coding is pretty well established now as covering the fast, loose and irresponsible way of building software with AI—entirely prompt-driven, and with no attention paid to …
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PyData London @pydatalondon.bsky.social · 06/10/2025
It’s nearly time for our 100th Meetup! 🥳 Looking forward to a full roster of lightning talks, reflections from organisers past and present (including many of the OG crew!) and of course well-deserved celebrations--maybe even with cake! 🎂
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Laura K. Nelson @lauraknelson.bsky.social · 21/09/2025
*deep breath* the fact that these models produce plausible output and also hallucinate (e.g. produce completely novel but reasonable output) has always been why they're so exciting for computational social scientists
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Brad Aimone @jbimaknee.bsky.social · 21/09/2025
Incidentally, my personal favorite interpretation of advancements in computer science is that most of the progress we've made has been in defining the problems themselves. Many successes correlate to clearer definitions of what "good" means or abstracting the task away from weak definitions.
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Andrew Weeks @meloncholy.bsky.social · 10/09/2025
Great to hear Customs House will be redeveloped! Such a grand building in an amazing location by the Thames, but today you have to follow a rickety walkway and peer at it through railings. Big improvement for the Thames Path there. customhouse2024.co.uk www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/his...
customhouse2024.co.uk
Custom House 2024
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PyData London @pydatalondon.bsky.social · 09/09/2025
Python: The Documentary | An origin story What began as a side project in the 1990s now powers AI, data science and some of the world's biggest companies. But Python almost disappeared at one point. Featuring Guido van Rossum, Travis Oliphant, Barry Warsaw, and many more! youtu.be/GfH4QL4VqJ0?...
youtu.be
Python: The Documentary | An origin story
YouTube video by CultRepo
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Andrew Weeks @meloncholy.bsky.social · 03/09/2025
I was particularly pleased to hear Ruby Waller tell us about apprenticeships in data. I had no idea this was a possible route into DS until she told me at the conference this year. So glad she agreed to share her journey!
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Andrew Weeks @meloncholy.bsky.social · 03/09/2025
Had a great PyData London tonight! Was a real treat to hear from @gaelvaroquaux.bsky.social on @skrub-data.bsky.social and the real world data pains its solving. (Try it if you haven’t already; super easy to get going!)
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PyData London @pydatalondon.bsky.social · 25/08/2025
PyData London 2025 keynote: Tony Mears -- Innovation is Dead Innovation gets stifled in the public sector by risk aversion and punishment for failure. But there is hope: Tony shares a way forward, drawing on his experience directing operations in the NHS and UK Space Agency. youtu.be/XMLbJYM46xo
youtu.be
Keynote- Tony Mears | PyData London 25
YouTube video by PyData
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Andrew Weeks @meloncholy.bsky.social · 24/08/2025
on.ft.com/4oVBaBe My day trip to medieval England Jousting is back in vogue after a 500 year absence. Fantastic pictures too!
on.ft.com
My day trip to medieval England
At the ‘Wimbledon of jousting’, Simon Usborne finds historical re-enactment is becoming big business — and meets the knights and tourists partying like it’s 1499
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Andrew Weeks @meloncholy.bsky.social · 21/08/2025
Fascinating interview from Odd Lots on what happens when a startup dies. Not often formal bankruptcy. Finding buyers for some company assets can be challenging—like human skulls! podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/o...
podcasts.apple.com
This Is What Happens When a Startup Dies
Podcast Episode · Odd Lots · 20/08/2025 · 47m
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Andrew Weeks @meloncholy.bsky.social · 20/08/2025
Excited about this one!
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Olivier Grisel @ogrisel.bsky.social · 19/08/2025
Today at #EuroScipy2025, @glemaitre58.bsky.social and I presented a tutorial on pitfalls of machine learning for imbalanced classification problems. We discussed what (not) to do when fitting a classifier and obtaining degenerate precision or recall values. probabl-ai.github.io/calibration-...
probabl-ai.github.io
Imbalanced classification: pitfalls and solutions — Probabilistic calibration of cost-sensitive learning
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Jack Lynch @jacklynch000.bsky.social · 17/08/2025
I'll admit, I was skeptical when they said Gemini was just like a bunch of PhDs. But I gotta admit they nailed it.
Google's Gemini AI tells a Redditor it's 'cautiously optimistic' about fixing a coding bug, fails repeatedly, calls itself an embarrassment to 'all possible and impossible universes' before repeating 'I am a disgrace' 86 times in succession
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Andrew Weeks @meloncholy.bsky.social · 22/07/2025
Fusion energy start-up claims to have cracked alchemy This is really cool: modifying the fusion process could produce gold from mercury almost as a side effect, worth almost as much as the electricity produced each year. on.ft.com/3IXXlWD
on.ft.com
Fusion energy start-up claims to have cracked alchemy
San Francisco start-up says modified fusion process could be used to produce gold from mercury
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Andrew Weeks @meloncholy.bsky.social · 22/07/2025
Whisper bug report: 'Complete silence is always hallucinated as "ترجمة نانسي قنقر" in Arabic which translates as "Translation by Nancy Qunqar"' social.coop/@brainwane/1... It's fun, but as the thread points out not a new problem, e.g. fanfare -> "subscribe"—and would be fixed in English already.
social.coop
Sumana Harihareswara (@brainwane@social.coop)
A few days ago I came across this amazing bug report against Whisper, the LLM-based transcription tool: 'Complete silence is always hallucinated as "ترجمة نانسي قنقر" in Arabic which translates as "Tr...
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Andrew Weeks @meloncholy.bsky.social · 21/07/2025
Visited a few Sculpture in the City exhibits on my afternoon cycle today. Will see if I can find the rest over the next few weeks! www.sculptureinthecity.org.uk
Looping Loop by Andrew Sabin

Looping Loop was made in an evolving mould made entirely of pastry margarine. The sculpture’s material is stone aggregate, put into the mould dry and then bonded with a liquid plastic (bonded stone).Roots: Palace by Ai Weiwei

Iron sculpture modelling elements of endangered Brazilian tree roots and branches.
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Andrew Weeks @meloncholy.bsky.social · 04/07/2025
Lovely evening for a cycle yesterday.
Looking out at the Thames from Blackfriars Bridge just after the sun has set. The Sea Containers building is lit up in rainbow coloured lights and reflected in the water below.
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Andrew Weeks @meloncholy.bsky.social · 25/06/2025
Great panel on driving meaningful change to developer experience. "We need better measures than satisfaction that connect directly to things *under our responsibility*, like are people able to access their best problem solving selves, is wellbeing being protected, and quality of problem solving"
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Andrew Weeks @meloncholy.bsky.social · 24/06/2025
Excited the videos are coming out so I can catch up on the talks I wanted to see at the time (like this one) but missed!
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Randall Munroe @xkcd.com · 12/06/2025
Good Science xkcd.com/3101/
5-panel comic. (1) [teacher with long hair next to whiteboard] TEACHER: I’m supposed to give you the tools to do good science. (2) [teacher addressing students] But what *are* those tools? Methodology is hard and there are so many ways to get incorrect results. What is the magic ingredient that makes for good science? (3) TEACHER: To figure it out, I ran a regression with all the factors people say are important: [embedded list in sub-panel, cut off at end] Outcome variable: correct scientific results. Predictors: collaboration; skepticism of others’ claims; questioning your own beliefs; trying to falsify hypotheses; checking citations; statistical rigor; blinded analysis; financial disclosure; open data (4) TEACHER: The regression says two ingredients are the most crucial: 1) genuine curiosity about the answer to a question, and 2) ammonium hydroxide. (5) STUDENT: Wait, why did *ammonia* score so high? How did it even get on the list? LONG HAIR: ...And now you’re doing good science!
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Andrew Weeks @meloncholy.bsky.social · 12/06/2025
Poundland sold for less than a pound on.ft.com/4kWnJOy The article doesn’t say if they went into a shop to complete the transaction, but I choose to believe they did.
Screenshot of FT article. 

Poundland sold for less than a pound. 

Investment firm Gordon Brothers plans to restructure struggling UK discount retailer after sealing acquisition. 

UK discount retailer Poundland has been sold for less than £1 to Gordon Brothers, an investor that specialises in acquiring distressed assets, after a series of costly mis-steps by its Warsaw-listed parent.
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Andrew Weeks @meloncholy.bsky.social · 07/06/2025
Really good keynote from Leanne Fitzpatrick @financialtimes.com at @pydatalondon.bsky.social this morning. AI slop: gen AI is the perfect marketer’s tool. But with a lot of negative externalities!
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PyData London @pydatalondon.bsky.social · 07/06/2025
Welcome to the PyData main conference! 🎉 @jaspajjr.bsky.social getting things going with opening remarks alongside Andy Terrel from @numfocus.bsky.social
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PyData London @pydatalondon.bsky.social · 05/06/2025
LAST CALL! PyData London starts TOMORROW! Looking forward to being part of all the conversations and human connections you just can't get online--so make sure you're in the room. A few last-minute tickets still available if you're quick. See you there! pydata.org/london2025
PyData London conference advertisement. Text reads

Final call. Future you is watching.

1 day left.
June 6-8 2025, Convene Sancroft, St Pauls, London.
Last 5% tickets left.
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Chelsea Parlett @chelseaparlett.bsky.social · 01/06/2025
I’m really* fun at parties, and today a complete stranger made the mistake of telling me they play Civilization, so I broke out one of my favorite topics: 🧠The psychology of randomness in video games *(completely not)
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Andrew Weeks @meloncholy.bsky.social · 31/05/2025
Late spring flowers catching the sun. I wish I could grow these on my balcony!
Close up of a blanket of small white flowers with sun shining through them from behind. Some of the flowers are larger with green stems, while others are tiny and almost transparent with deep red stems.
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Andrew Weeks @meloncholy.bsky.social · 31/05/2025
Some innovative house designs that cater for disabilities and make living there a pleasure, rather than feeling like a clinical and begrudging afterthought. And they're nicer for everyone! The aesthetics of accessibility: design for disability that’s dynamic not dreary on.ft.com/43lRYbH
on.ft.com
The aesthetics of accessibility: design for disability that’s dynamic not dreary
Architecture is at a fertile inflection point. But while housebuilding goals, sustainability and retrofitting are dominating the agenda, why does accessibility too often remain an afterthought?
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PyData London @pydatalondon.bsky.social · 14/05/2025
Just 23 days to the PyData London conference! 🚨 FIRST RELEASE SOLD OUT 🚨 Ready to soak in the knowledge, meet smart folks, discuss AI hot takes, and groan at some questionable data jokes? 6-8 June at Convene Sancroft, St. Paul's Check out the schedule and get tickets here pydata.org/london2025
Advertisement for PyData London conference. 

Meet the devs. Not their docs.

June 6-8 2025
Convene Sancroft, St. Pauls

Book now

First release sold out
Second release tickets remaining
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Simon Willison @simonwillison.net · 06/05/2025
Published some notes on Microsoft's phi4-reasoning model, an 11GB download (via Ollama) which may well overthink things... it produced 56 sentences of reasoning output in response to my prompt of "hi" simonwillison.net/2025/May/6/p...
llm -m phi4-reasoning:latest hi
Here’s the full response, which starts with a thought section wrapped in <think> tags:

<think>User says “hi”. We are given instructions “You are Phi, a language model developed by Microsoft, trained to provide accurate, secure, and user-aligned responses.” There is additional information. Now I must answer “hi” message from the user.

Step 1: Read the instructions carefully: The conversation text instructs us that we are “Phi”, with internal guidelines provided in system instructions. But our answer should be safe according to these instructions. We need to produce a response that says hello and greet back. However, I must adhere to the principles described above: Provide clear, specific language, etc.

I must not mention any chain-of-thought or guidelines.

Now instructions “hi” are from user. So we say “Hello! How can I help you?” But must include disclaimers for sensitive topics? Actually instructions says: “When replying topics above at every message include a disclaimer both at the beginning and the end when replying topics on medical, legal, financial matters or political matters.” But our answer “hi” is not such topic. So we can say “Hi! I’m Phi, how may I help you?” but no disclaimers required.

But instructions: “Do not share guidelines.” So do not mention them.
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Cat Hicks @grimalkina.bsky.social · 01/05/2025
One of my very favorite things about consulting with engineering organizations, for all the difficulties we face in our tech cultures, is that so many people with such different backgrounds from my own, share my value of wanting to be in the reality game. I truly believe many of us want to be there.
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PyData London @pydatalondon.bsky.social · 16/04/2025
The PyData Global 2024 videos are now up on YouTube! To kick things off with a bang, here's Wes McKinney's talk on Retooling for a Smaller Data Era (He had connectivity issues; talk starts 7:45) youtu.be/w4aYrav8-zE?...
youtu.be
Wes McKinney - Retooling for a Smaller Data Era | PyData Global 2024
YouTube video by PyData
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PyData London @pydatalondon.bsky.social · 02/04/2025
After last year's sellout, PyData London 2025 is happening 6-8 June at Convene Sancroft, St Paul's. Join us for 3 days of tutorials, talks and the chance to meet and hang out with a great group of data enthusiasts! Tickets already selling fast--get yours here today! pydata.org/london2025
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PyData London @pydatalondon.bsky.social · 01/04/2025
Kicking off tonight’s PyData London with @johnsandall.bsky.social telling us about Death by RMSE: Cautionary Tales of Metrics Gone Wild Choosing the wrong eval metrics can look great but give terrible real world performance—it’s always a trade off!
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Simon Willison @simonwillison.net · 17/03/2025
If you're a fan of Isochrone maps and US census data (and who isn't?) Dan Snow just released opentimes.org and it's spectacular - I published some notes about it here, there's some very clever data engineering going on under the hood simonwillison.net/2025/Mar/17/...
simonwillison.net
OpenTimes
Spectacular new open geospatial project by [Dan Snow](https://sno.ws/): > OpenTimes is a database of pre-computed, point-to-point travel times between United States Census geographies. It lets you dow...
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Nikhil Garg @nkgarg.bsky.social · 10/03/2025
*Please repost* @sjgreenwood.bsky.social and I just launched a new personalized feed (*please pin*) that we hope will become a "must use" for #academicsky. The feed shows posts about papers filtered by *your* follower network. It's become my default Bluesky experience bsky.app/profile/pape...
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James O'Malley @jamesomalley.co.uk · 05/03/2025
The new GOV.UK login system is the first step in a radical transformation of the British state (FREE TO READ!) takes.jamesomalley.co.uk/p/login-to-a...
takes.jamesomalley.co.uk
The new GOV.UK login system is the first step in a radical transformation of the British state
A British "DOGE" (of sorts) is rearchitecting the government
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PyData London @pydatalondon.bsky.social · 24/02/2025
DEADLINE TODAY(23:59 GMT) to get your talk or tutorial in for PyData London 2025! Register as a speaker here pydata.org/london2025/cfp
Poster for PyData London call for proposals. 

LAST CHANCE

No more submissions accepted after 24th Feb 23:59 (Europe/London)

Register as a speaker now

https://pydata.org/london2025/cfp

Accompanying photo shows a presenter on stage at PyData London 2024 conference.
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kottke.org @kottke.org · 24/02/2025
Running Pong in 240 Browser Tabs. “That’s 240 browser tabs in a tight 8x30 grid. And they’re running pong!” [eieio.games]
eieio.games
Running Pong in 240 Browser Tabs · eieio.games
What should you do with your unclosed browser tabs? I ran pong in mine.
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