Meet the Writer: Hacker Noon's Contributor Max Palacios, AI developer

This story is a part of Hacker Noon's Meet the Writer series of interviews. The series is intended for tech professionals contributing the most insightful Hacker Noon stories to share more about their writing habits, ideas, and professional background (and maybe a hobby or two). If you too would like to start contributing to Hacker Noon, you can do so here.

So let’s start! Tell us a bit about yourself. For example, name, profession, and personal interests.

I am Max, a data scientist and AI developer leading the development of the SmithBot crypto bot trading algorithms. My friends call me “the nerd with the PhD” (behind my back :-).

My personal interests are computing, robots and cryptocurrency and FOREX trading.

Interesting! What was your latest Hackernoon Top story about?

One of my passions is to explain complex topics to outsiders and make them interested in new topics. I also like to educate people on things I believe they should know to be successful in life. Therefore, my latest article was a beginner-friendly guide on cryptocurrency trading where interested folks can find all they need to know in one place.

Do you usually write on similar topics? If not, what do you usually write about?

Most of my contributions are really about cryptocurrency, trading, AI and all kind of tech topics. I am writing for all kinds of audience in blogs and news sites, but also for peer-reviewed scientific journals from time to time.

Great! What is your usual writing routine like (if you have one?)

As structure and the reading flow seems very important, I always start with an outline, so I put down the headlines first. Next, I add the graphical content, like images, diagrams and tables. At the very end I fill the space between these elements with text. Might not work for everyone, but for me it works great.

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?

Assuming the role of your readers. As experts in our field, we often write in way outsiders cannot understand. While this might be appropriate when writing for a scientific journal, in most other cases it is not. My goal is that the average reader finds my stories interesting and helpful.

What is the next thing you hope to achieve in your career?

One of my dreams is teaching computer science students at the university when I have free time some day. At the moment, I’m too occupied with my work, however.

Wow, that’s admirable. Now, something more casual: What is your guilty pleasure of choice?

I love sushi and eat way too much of it …

Do you have a non-tech-related hobby? If yes, what is it?

Definitely! My other hobbies are swimming, scuba diving and walking my crazy dog.

What can the Hacker Noon community expect to read from you next?

One topic on my list is explaining some of the tech behind our crypto trading bots so people can understand that this not voodoo, but rooted in science. Another topic I was long planning to write about is popular misconceptions about Artificial Intelligence. Conceptually, it is really much simpler than most people think it is.

Thanks for taking time to join our “Meet the writer” series. It was a pleasure. Do you have any closing words?

Thanks for having me on Hackernoon. It’s a great community with great content. The place where nerds feel home ;-)