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Semantic search versus keyword search for support tickets
Semantic search should retrieve relevant text when wording differs. That promise needs query-level relevance judgments and a keyword baseline. A lower-dimensional vector does not become semantic merely because it uses co
Sentiment analysis: define the label before training
“Positive” and “negative” are not self-defining labels. A ticket can praise an agent while reporting an unresolved refund. A literal positive word can express sarcasm. Before training, state whose sentiment is being labe
Separate an agent's proposal from an approved action
Drafting an email, refund or database change does not authorize it. Store a proposed action, show its effect to the right person and bind approval to that exact content.
Separate configuration from analysis code
Move values that legitimately vary between runs into configuration: input path, output location and reporting month are good examples. Keep the calculation's meaning explicit and versioned. Turning every business rule in
Separate liveness and readiness checks
Liveness answers whether the process should restart. Readiness answers whether it should receive traffic. Conflating them can create restart storms during a dependency outage.
Separate model knowledge from current external information
A model can explain stable concepts without proving what is true today. Prices, office holders, policies, product versions, schedules and incident ownership can change after training or between requests. Current claims n
Separate observations, explanations and recommendations
Separate what the data shows, how a calculation accounts for the change and what action you propose. An observation is not automatically a causal explanation, and an explanation does not uniquely determine the best busin
Separate offline evaluation from production success metrics
Offline tests answer whether a version handles controlled cases. Production metrics answer what happens in a live workflow with real traffic, integrations and human behaviour. Combining them into one score destroys that
Separate retrieval facts from calculated numbers
A retrieved document can establish how a business metric is defined. A calculation establishes its value for a particular dataset and period. An analytical assistant needs both forms of evidence, and it should not use a
Separate reusable product features from client customization
Forward-deployed teams learn valuable client specifics, but copying the codebase for each client turns learning into maintenance debt. The design question is which differences express product policy and which reflect an
Separate secrets from report configuration
A report's date range, region and metric settings belong in reproducible configuration. API tokens and database passwords should come through a separate controlled runtime channel and should not appear in committed confi
Sequence models: distinguish padding from real observations
Batches often require equal sequence lengths, so shorter examples receive padding. If zero is also a legitimate observation or token, its numeric value cannot tell the model which positions are real. Supply sequence leng
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