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Feedback Loops

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Feedback is the breakfast of champions   Imagine driving down the Sir Solomon Hochoy Highway at 100 km/h. You don't just point the steering wheel straight, lock your arms, and close your eyes. You are constantly making micro-adjustments based on a continuous stream of visual feedback, whether it's a slight curve in the road, a pothole, or the car ahead tapping its brakes. Obstacles are inevitable... But the sooner we become aware of them, the smoother the drive! The world around us is constantly changing, and we need to keep our eyes open and adjust accordingly to avoid running off the asphalt. In an era where data and information are generated at breakneck speeds, cruising on autopilot is a massive disservice to yourself. To stay on the road, you must remain fully aware of who you are and what is happening around you. That constant adjustment on the highway is a real-time feedback loop in action: you take in data, process it, and adjust your behavior to stay on track. These lo...
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CIBC's Women in AI 2026: 3 Takeaways

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“The quality of your life is determined by the quality of the questions you ask yourself and others.”  — Tony Robbins Last Thursday, I attended CIBC’s Women in AI Event at UWI St. Augustine, and one of the most memorable parts of the experience was the Q&A session. The room was filled with thoughtful questions on topics such as data collection, AI history, performance metrics, and accountability. It was the kind of discussion that could have easily been its own event. While many of these topics were already familiar to me, it was refreshing to be in a space with women asking critical questions about the future of Artificial Intelligence. One question stood out to me most:  What are you doing to support the community when it comes to AI? That question stayed with me long after the event ended. Today, I’m using this blog post to reflect on that question and summarize three others raised during the session, blending key ideas shared in the room with my own perspective. F...
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File Types: Excel vs CSV

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They open in the same app. That’s where the similarities end. As someone who works with large amounts of data (and has made a lot of mistakes), I'm writing this for anyone still fuzzy on the fundamental differences between Excel (.xlsx) and Comma-Separated Values (.csv) files. If you’re expected to automate data flows , please don’t ignore this one. This post is for you! On the surface, these two look like identical twins: Tomayto.xlsx Tomahto.csv But if you look closely, you’ll notice the first difference. If you noticed that Tomayto.xlsx is 7× bigger in Size than Tomahto.csv —you’re right! And here’s the key detail: both files are EMPTY . So, what's going on? They both look the same to us, but the computer sees it differently. 
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2026: Think Like a Polymath and Ask Better Questions

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  "You have not because you ask not" - James 4:2 Today’s inspiration comes from a recent conversation I had with a friend about AI. It took about five minutes for us to agree on one thing: AI is a supercharged dictionary. It retrieves, remixes, and summarizes information that already exists at blistering speed.  Where AI Shines (And Where It Doesn’t) AI is already doing useful, practical work across industries: In finance , it scans transactions for anomalies—very useful when you’re trying to spot fraud faster than a licensing officer giving out a ticket. In education , it tutors students on demand, explaining concepts in multiple ways without getting tired (or vex). In government and utilities , it helps analyze reports, policies, and data trends that would otherwise sit unread in a folder labeled “Final_Final_v7”. But notice the pattern. AI accelerates known work . It doesn’t decide what work matters. It doesn’t wake up one morning and ask, “Why does this system feel i...
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No Laptop November

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"Life is hard, but that's what makes it interesting" - Dad It's time to break the silence once more! Things did not go as I planned, but it makes for a good story.  So you're probably wondering... " Toni, what happened? I thought you were coming back? " and to that I would say, I thought the same. I thought that I would get back in my groove and post blog 109 weeks ago! My simple hardware failure quickly escalated into a complex and costly international shipping disaster. It all started on November 7th at about 5 AM while I was clacking away on my keyboard, the display for my newly purchased Zenbook S16 decided that it was time to say goodbye. I made every attempt to reilluminate it by doing the famous "turn-it-off-and turn-it-back-on" trick and confirmed that it was a hardware issue with Asus Helpdesk. I still held a warranty , which was a relief. However, I had to send the laptop to the States so the manufacturer could fix it and send it ba...
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October Reflections

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The name October comes from the Latin “octo,” meaning eight . This morning, my dad asked about my blog. I winced — I’ve been dodging it since September! But that question was the nudge I needed. Because when I stopped to think, I realized:  even without posting, I’d been living. I hiked (and fell multiple times). Tried lobster for the first time. Met my coworkers in Barbados. And impulsively bought this... (I only had 1/4) All that living gave me plenty to reflect on — and two moments in particular stood out. 1. Women in Data Science (WiDS) TT Spotlight Talk Dr. Letetia Addison invited me to speak at the Women in Data Science TT Spotlight Talk — for the second time!  She actually found me through this very blog. I wasn’t publishing much here, but I was active on LinkedIn.  When it came time to prepare my WiDS talk, I had weeks, but I started only days before. Procrastination kept winning. Then came a call with my friend Carson White, we brainstormed ways in whic...
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Wait! Before You Throw Away Your Laptop...

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“Our whole economy is based on planned obsolescence.” — Brooks Stevens   My Lenovo IdeaPad 350 carried me through my Computer Science degree and even hosted the beginnings of this blog series.  It witnessed late-night coding marathons, countless essays, and the very first drafts of ideas I’m still exploring today. I’ve since upgraded to an ASUS Zenbook S16 (which I’m very happy with) , but my old laptop still sits quietly on a shelf, waiting for its final chapter. If you didn’t know, the average lifespan of a laptop is about five years. When I asked a few friends what they do with their old machines, most admitted they just… keep them.  I guess I know a lot of hoarders... But honestly, that’s still better than those who throw them away like an old pair of shoes. Here’s something to think about: the world generates over 50 million metric tons of e-waste each year , and only about 20% is recycled properly . That means millions of tons of toxic metals—like lead, mercury, an...
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