I am a 'Kaggler', I have done well (prize winner) in some past competitions and I could not agree more. In the last week of a competition, you go into kitchen

I am a 'Kaggler', I have done well (prize winner) in some past competitions and I could not agree more. In the last week of a competition, you go into kitchen sink mode trying anything and everything to squeeze the last few points out of your models. The objective of the competition from the competitors standpoint is to win, not create a solution that could be deployed into the sponsor's production environment. On going maintenance of the model is not a consideration. As far as the netflix competition goes though, the final solutions did help publicize the potential of ensembling and RBMs - I am grateful for that. My personal approach to the competitions is to use them as an opportunity to try out new modeling techniques (i.e. RMBs, deep beliefs etc...) on real world data. It has the added bonus of potentially paying off with prize money (as long as you don't get screwed[1]). I would like to hear from past Kaggle sponsors and see what they have done with the winning models. [1] http://www.gequest.com/c/flight/forums/t/4284/acknowledging-two-more-great-competitors http://www.gequest.com/c/flight/forums/t/4284/acknowledging-...