Machine learning in a hurry: what I've learned from the SLICED ML competition

This summer I've been competing in the SLICED machine learning competition, where contestants have two hours to open a new dataset, build a predictive model, and be scored as a Kaggle submission. Contestants are graded primarily on model performance, but also get points for visualization and storytelling, and from audience votes. Before SLICED I had almost no experience with competitive ML, so I learned a lot! As of today I'm 5th in the standings, short of the cutoff for the playoffs, so if you want to see me continue you can vote for me as an "Audience Choice" here! For four of the SLICED episodes (including the two weeks I was competing) I shared a screencast of my process.