I do stuff at SlashML
Previously, I did stuff at plot.ly
Before that I did my Masters in Research at McGill University under the supervision of Daniel and Shane (now at Waterloo).. I focused on empirical software analysis in my thesis
Research
Projects
Blog
Cool Things
Books
Here are some relevant publications
- F Khan B Chen, D Varro, S McIntosh An Empirical Study of Type-Related Defects in Python Projects . IEEE - Transactions of Software Engineering 48 (2021).
- F Khan I David, D Varro, S McIntoshCode cloning in Smart Contracts: An extended replication study. IEEE-Transactions of Software Engineering 49 (2022)
For some samples of code written at 4am, see my GitHub.
Here are some rough notes about things
A collection of things I am interested in
- It will never work in Theory: Short summaries of Empirical Software Engineering papers and their limitations in representation the real world software engineering practices.
- Papers for software engineers: A collection of impactful papers that affected the way we build software now-a-days.
- 500 ML system design case studies: A collection of blogs containing case studies of real-world ML systems deployed at scale.
- Teach yourself CS: A collection of books and relevant video series that can cover all the basics taught in a CS degree.
- Ideas for Software Engineering Research: Ideas collected by Greg Wilson for software engineering research.
- Introduction to Program Synthesis A course by Armando Solar-Lezama on program synthesis.
Updated list of books maintained here. Recommendations are welcomed at faizan10114@gmail.com
- The Three-Body Problem (10/10, completed 01/12/2025): Amazing book, blown away by the storyline and the science. Captures incentives and human nature well.
- Bobiverse: We Are Legion (5/10, December 2024): Okayish book, too sci-fi for my taste. Found the consciousness backup concept and ship details excessive
- The Martian (10/10, November 2024): Loved the book and the science
- Project Hail Mary (9/10, October 2024): Loved the book, though the science was a bit iffy
- The Art of Resilience (7/10, Started 10/22/24): Felt a bit dragged, could have been a blog post. The author combined philosophy and science, with doing something hard.
- The Egg and Other Stories (10/10, October 2024): Short stories by Andy Weir
- Contact (10/10, September 2024): Amazing book, finished quickly though didn't like the ending
- Be Useful (9/10, Started 10/20/2023, March 2024): Didn't expect to like it, but found it interesting. I haven't read total recall by Arnold Schwarzenegger though.
- Bird by Bird (8/10, 10/24/2023-10/28/2023): Not as great as expected. Some wisdom and calming advice, could have been a blog post
- The $100M Offer (09/23/2023-10/24/2023): Overrated but good marketing advice
- Zero to One (9/10, 07/20/2023-09/23/2023): Dense with information, good thoughts throughout. More like a collection of essays than a coherent book, but valuable nonetheless
- The Book of Five Rings (8/10, 07/20/2023-09/10/2023): Abstract but insightful on training principles. Good post-transcript analysis
- Born Standing Up (7/10, completed 07/15/2023): Okay book, didn't meet high expectations
- The Confusion (7/10, 04/2021-07/2023): Part of the Baroque Cycle. This book was a bit of a drag, but the series is amazing
- Skin in the Game (9/10, Summer 2022-06/2023): A colleciton of ideas
- Excellent Advice for Living (10/10, 06/05/2023-06/10/2023): Amazing short book, read it in a few days
- Shoe Dog (9/10, 05/01/2023-06/12/2023): Inspiring biography of Phil Knight, amazing book.
- Make Your Own Mistakes (6/10, completed 06/13/2023): Normal book by Rich Cohen, notable only for its writing style
- Man's Search for Meaning (10/10, 11/2022): Amazing book, brought immense calmness
- Shannon (7/10, 07/10/2022): Interesting biography, glossed over the technical details though
- How to Become a High School Rockstar (10/10, completed 06/22): Strategic approaches to academic competition. Not sure why but I found this book incredibly motivating
- Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman (10/10, 03/21-04/21): Amazing book, detailed biography, not better than Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman though
- Hackers and Painters (10/10, completed 12/20): Perfect book. A must read. Read all of his essays afterwards
- The principles by Ray Dalio (6/10, 04/18): Could have been a blog post, not a book. One basic idea though
- The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck (9/10, 12/17): it was philosophy which I liked, the writing style was less bullshit and straight to the point frank.
- Vagabonding (8/10, 11/10/17-12/10/17): A great book, overall a great idea, can be summarized into one paragraph, no need for reading the whole book.
- The Everything Store (8/10, 10/01/17-10/30/17): Just a timeline of what has happened and what is happening. Not like the elon musks biography.
- The Banana King (10/10, 07/03/17-09/29/17): The most awesome biography I have ever read. It’s a real life story. The first part is a bit tough though.
- The Obstacle is the Way (8/10, 05/23/17-06/22/17): Stoic philosophy applied to modern challenges. Particularly helpful during the admissions process
- The Art of Learning (10/10, completed 05/17/17): Incredibly rich, beautifully written. Brought calmness in the chaos of the graduate application process
- Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman (8/10, completed 04/17): Entertaining memoir that captures Feynman's unique perspective
- Influence (10/10, completed 02/24/17): Robert Cialdini's comprehensive exploration of persuasion principles
- Do the work (9/10, completed 12/07/16): One idea explained in different ways, but gets you pumped to do the work.
- The art of non-conformity (9/10, completed 11/29/16): A great book, a bit repetitive, but a great idea. Clear writing style
- Think and grow rich (3/10): Old writing style, and archaic productivity ideas.
- Tribes (3/10): Could have been a blogpost
- Deep Work (8/10): Good idea and examples. Not sure how practical they are.
- How to Think Like a Freak (8/10): A collection of different ideas, explaining macroeconomics and relevant causation vs correlation issues.
- So Good They Can't Ignore You (8/10): Cal Newport's focused examination of career capital and skill development
- the Outliers (8/10): Okaish book
- Elon Musk by Ashley Vance (8/10): Found this one better than the old one