Thank you for taking part in HackerNoon’s Meet the Writers Interview Series, Edem. Tell us a bit about yourself!
My name is Edem Gold, I’m a Machine Learning Engineer. I attend the University of Calabar, Nigeria where I major in Accounting. I picked the accounting route over the usual computer science route because :
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I am interested in how money works and accounting seems the best way to get to know that better.
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The computer science department in my school is no good.
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It doesn’t hurt to know how to account 😁
I am interested primarily in Artificial Intelligence and how it can help better serve humanity, I am also intrigued by Brain-Machine-interfaces, quantum computers, and other things no normal 18 year old would care about.
Interesting! What was your latest HackerNoon Top story about?
My latest HackerNoon Top story was about Boredom. A lot of people my age usually just stare at their phones, looking at TikTok videos moving on to Instagram reels, then consume WhatsApp status updates, then they begin the cycle all over again.
And when asked they give the excuse that they don’t want to get bored, So I thought it would be cool to write an article explaining how boredom is a core mechanism which initiates creativity in we humans and it was okay to be bored.
Do you usually write on similar topics? If not, what do you usually write about?
I enjoy turning complex concepts into stories and it doesn’t matter the topic, as long as I feel it’s something that would be beneficial to humans I write about it.
In summary, I write about what catches my fancy from AI, Quantum Computers, Brain-Machine-Interfaces, and Machine Learning. But my primary focus has been and always will be Artificial Intelligence.
Great! What is your usual writing routine like (if you have one?)
To begin, I make research about my proposed topic, then I make notes about my research results. After making notes, I write down my first draft based on what I got from my research, I fine-tune my wordings after which I figure out how to segment the article (add things like headers, etc).
Being a writer in tech can be a challenge. It’s not often our main role, but an addition to another one. What is the biggest challenge you have when it comes to writing?
My biggest challenge so far has been getting traffic, I usually fix my other challenges using technology. I have built a suite of AI tools that help me streamline most of my writing: I built an AI text summarizer to summarize long paragraphs, a question and answer bot to help research, and other stuff. But unfortunately, AI can’t fix the problem of traffic (or can it 😉 😅 ).
What is the next thing you hope to achieve in your career?
I am 18 and I just got into the university, so I’m still open to ideas 😁 , but for now I plan to build my skills, build cool stuff, write about how I built them, and see what happens!
Wow, that’s admirable. Now, something more casual: What is your guilty pleasure of choice?
I enjoy tweeting memes and jokes, and playing dls football games 😅
Do you have a non-tech-related hobby? If yes, what is it?
I’m afraid I’m a boring person. 😅 I do not have any interesting hobbies, except maybe playing football games, listening to podcasts (Lex Fridman), and watching YouTube videos.
What can the Hacker Noon community expect to read from you next?
I plan to go deeper into understanding algorithms, systems and build cool things based on my understanding so expect more of building.
Thanks for taking the time to join our “Meet the writer” series. It was a pleasure. Do you have any closing words?
I really enjoy HackerNoon and what it is doing, giving creators a community of people not scared to read weird stuff, big ups to them. I have a little piece of advice for aspiring creators -Trust in the process, build yourself and the success will come, but it’s important you start now.