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Tag: Engineering culture

11 Sep 2025

How Benjamin Franklin Invented Machine Learning in 1720

How Benjamin Franklin Invented Machine Learning in 1720

Benjamin Franklin discovered gradient descent 250 years before we had the mathematics to describe it.

Steve Francia

For 3 decades, I’ve helped transform breakthrough ideas into trusted platforms now used by more than 50% of the world’s developers. I’ve scaled this impact through leadership at Google, MongoDB, Docker, and Two Sigma as Managing Director, VP, and Product Leader shaping the tools that power modern software development.

My approach is simple: listen deeply, build elegantly, and maintain a healthy disregard for the impossible.

This philosophy guided me through architecting MongoDB’s user experience that sparked mass adoption, scaling Go from 400K to 4.5 million developers at Google, pioneering container standards at Docker, and directing AI platform innovation at Two Sigma.

While the technical problems are exhilarating to solve, I’ve learned that it’s the human stack: the teams, cultures, and communities we build that truly determines lasting impact. Here, I share lessons on building products and teams that not only work, but endure and inspire.

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