Wrong Technology

Hi I'm Prithvi Prabhu.

The purpose of computing is insight, not numbers
- Richard Hamming

Delivering insights to those that need them, in a usable form, is still cumbersome in 2022. Most analytics / ML / data science projects never make it to production.

Quick prototyping, continuous feedback from end-users, and rapid improvement is of the utmost necessity. Resorting to long-winded product design/development processes and client/server architectures is time-consuming and introduces accidental complexity, mostly avoidable.

There are simpler ways. This blog explores how.

About

I work at the intersection of computing and design to explore and invent new ways of interacting with information. I author software that makes it simple, fast, fun and easy to discover, interpret and communicate patterns in data.

I am interested in:

Work

I've founded or been an early engineer in three startups.

I currently work at H2O.ai at Mountain View as Chief Technologist, a fancy title for "mostly programmer, programming" (12,000+ commits in Github since March 2014).

I lead the development of H2O Nitro and H2O Wave, open-source rapid application development systems for authoring interactive real-time information displays and analytical decision-support systems.

I consider myself incredibly fortunate to be working with some of the smartest people in the industry, including Leland Wilkinson of Grammar of Graphics fame, and hacker extraordinaire Cliff Click.

See Projects for a complete list of things I've worked on.

Programming Languages

I like tinkering with programming languages.

Patents

Music

When I'm not working, I'm usually into sample-based music production, mainly using an MPC Live II, an Octatrack mkII, a Roland FA workstation keyboard, and a couple of Novation Launchpads hooked up to Ableton Live. The MPC Live, in particular, is a brilliantly designed sampler and endless fun. I've spent countless hours studying and reverse-engineering sampling and sequencing techniques used in boom-bap, hip hop, trip hop, lo-fi and related genres. Someday I hope to design and build an inexpensive, self-contained, compact portable hardware sampler like the MPC, embedded systems and all. Email me if you want to collaborate ;-)