What a Bakery Taught Data Scientists About Practical Technology
Five Minutes
On Wednesday I stood in front of a room full of data scientists and engineers at SciPy 2026 in Minneapolis. I had five minutes for a lightning talk. Five minutes to explain what it is like running a two-person German bakery with open-source tools.
That is not a lot of time. There are so many layers to how this business works, from the grocery list automation I have written about before to the wright library we released earlier this summer. I could have talked for an hour.
The Balance
What I tried to get across in those five minutes is that none of this technology exists for its own sake. The goal is not to build the most elegant system, it is to make more room for the people we serve.
Mary and I run this bakery together. Every hour I save on grocery lists, cost calculations, or planning is an hour she can spend on the things that actually matter, like connecting with customers, sharing stories about German baking, and making the best items we can. Technology is the tool that creates that space.
Technology is not the only way to make things easier though. We can get more clever about how we pack the car, what we bring and what we leave behind, or maybe find a kitchen with two ovens instead of one. There are lots of ways to create space. This is just the technology side of it.
People Got It
After the talk, a few people came up. Some said they make gluten-free items too, just not at the same scale. Others mentioned they were trying to build their own shopping list system and wondered if wright could help. Nothing dramatic, but it sparked some interest.
That is why I released wright as open source in the first place. It is the engine behind most of what we do, and if it helps someone else solve a similar problem, that is the point.
Why It Matters
For me, I am just trying to make helpful technology and understand how to improve processes. As a data scientist, it is always about the users. The user in this case happens to be my wife, and I am just trying to allow her to focus on what is important and of interest to her: the baking, making new recipes, and connecting with the customers.
Open source is something I care about and leveraging technology is part of my daily work. There is so much we could do with this business, but there is always the question of whether something is worth the burden. That judgment call is what keeps it interesting. It is a genuinely fun use case for technology, and I love being able to share it.
If you want to try our lighter take on German cake, find us at a market or email us your order and we will get you your cake.