Ken's Nearest Neighbors
The Ken's Nearest Neighbors Podcast is about telling the unique stories of the people in the data and AI space. In highly technical fields, we often lose sight of the individuals who are making the positive change. The podcast focuses on who these people are and how they have approached the big decisions in their life that shaped their world view and career. While the podcast is centered on a technical domain, the conversations often touch on personal philosophy, the pursuit of meaning, and how we define success in our career and lives.
Ken's Nearest Neighbors
Escaping a Cult to Pursue AI (Kurtis Pykes) - KNN Ep. 75
Today I had the pleasure of interviewing Kurtis Pykes. Kurtis is a self-taught ML Engineer from London England but describes himself as a global citizen. He currently works as a freelancer for various companies and also maintains his own Medium blog. In the past year, he was voted to have some of the best medium blog content by his peers on linkedin. In his spare time, he likes to read, exercise, and play chess (even though he's pants).
Kurtis has a Fascinating story. We talk about tragedy derailed his professional football career, his scary experience as part of a cult, and how he found purpose and personal growth through the study of machine learning and writing.
I loved chatting with Kurtis, and I'm excited I get to share our conversation with you all.