Aug 3 2021
I woke up this morning with a couple minutes to spare before my writing sesh started, so I checked my email.
What did I find?
A $300+ charge on an AWS (Amazon Web Services) Sagemaker notebook instance that had been accruing a $0.73 charge per hour for like, I don’t know, a month?
After bumbling around the AWS website (which is godawful) I was able to find the support center and submit a ticket. Am I screwed? Probably. A quick Google search proved I was far from the first person to have experienced sneaky little AWS services amassing charges (with no notification, update, nothing) until the fateful billing date.
Now I’ll admit, I should have deleted it. That’s on me. I think the thing that makes me so pissed about all this is that I gave up on AWS and switched to GCP (Google Cloud Products) because I remember that day I made the notebook, and I couldn’t even get the goddamn thing to open. Apparently it did, though, because it was able to charge me, using up all my Free-Tier hours and then billing up my credit card. So that’s why they want you to sign up with a credit card.
I’ll quit complaining about AWS and say this: if you want to learn about machine learning or tinker with models, use Google Colab. Hell, use the Pro version if you like - it’s $10 a month and you get access to better GPUs or even TPUs. They’re simple and they’re saved in your Google Drive, and damn it, they just work. The same goes for GCP, but I’m honestly not familiar enough with all their services to sing their praises beyond how much simpler their UI and setup is compared to AWS.
In yesterday’s blog post, I was rambling about the Pareto Principle, or the idea that 20 percent of the input is responsible for 80 percent of the outcome. While I don’t think this applies to everything, it’s a fun thought experiment if we take this for granted and apply it at increasingly granular levels on a wide variety of contexts. Furthermore, it seems to hold, from my layman’s perspective, in surprising ways (as a disclaimer, though, this is just me with my Absolutist Pareto hat on - I’m just pushing the idea to it’s limit and I don’t necessarily completely believe everything I’m about to say)
Surely more time is spent exercising than dieting, yet diet is a crucial part of weight loss.
In a given piece of music, you may be able to play the majority of the piece, but the section you struggle on will take the majority of your time/focus
Consider the amount of time you’ve spent in silence with your siblings, parents, loved one, or long-time friends - yet the comparatively small amounts of time you spend actually talking are what develop your relationship.
Let’s say we took a vacation to Paris (never been, would love to go). The flight there would be at least ten hours. Transporting ourselves between the hotel and the places we want to go would take more time as a whole, and yet walking down the cobblestone streets and seeing the bakeries, people watching as we wait for a bus, all that - that would probably come sooner to mind years later that seeing the Mona Lisa.
That was fun. Do I really believe everything I said? No. But I think taking the Pareto Principle seriously is worthwhile, regardless of whether we can pinpoint exactly what that optimal twenty percent of input is. In an attempt to apply the principle to different activities or experiences, we undergo the following process:
The above two options are essentially one in the same because they both lead us to the conclusion that we should engage ourselves best we can throughout our entire experience. This is why I like applying the Pareto Principle to time management so much - no matter what insights it leads to, we’re always lead to the final conclusion - that we should do our best.
A spiritual book by Don Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements contains some valuable rules for living that, if followed diligently, could vastly change one’s outlook on life. As an excuse for using the block quote syntax in Markdown, I will include the Four Agreements below:
Be Impeccable With Your Word
Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.
Don’t Take Anything Personally
Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering.
Don’t Make Assumptions
Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness, and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.
Always Do Your Best
Your best is going to change from moment to moment. It will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgement, self-abuse, and regret.
That’s all from me today. Happy Tuesday y’all.