The Majors of Me
graph LR; A–>B;
Fundamental Philosophies
I consider myself a data scientist. People seem to argue the definition of data scientist with the same contention that they swear by apple or android. I believe Josh Willis has one of the better definitions with:
Data Scientist (n.): Person who is better at statistics than any software engineer and better at software engineering than any statistician.
One academic institution I came across described the role as:
an analytical expert who utilizes their skills in both technology and social science to find trends and manage data. They use industry knowledge, contextual understanding, skepticism of existing assumptions – to uncover solutions to business challenges.
With so many opinions out there, you’d have to be mad to add your own…. So, my definition of a data scientist would be:
A problem solver with knowledge of math, software, coding, data and abstraction.
I think its also important to contextualize the work of a data scientist. The following quote comes from Dave Farley, and although its context is for software development, it seems equally applicable to data science.
Solving Problems is More Important Than Design Design is More Important Than Coding Coding is More Important than the Language & Frameworks
I Was Put Under New Management
Probably not the way my wife would like me to phrase our marriage, but she is terribly bored by anything I do involving code, math, or conversation not pertaining to 90-day British Bake-off or whatever MTV reality TV show she’s watching. Admittedly, we have rather different hobbies, but the last year of marriage has been amazing. She makes me a better person, and that makes me a better coder and mathematician. She has also made me realize how much cleaner an apartment can be when you put your clothes in a hamper rather than the floor… In any case, we have been blessed by an amazing first year of marriage, and I look forward to the future!
We Got a Cat!
As of the first week of 2021, I have seriously contemplated transitioning this website to something more useful and relatable to the general public - a repository of cat pictures. You may be thinking, but the internet is already 80% cat pictures and 20% human debauchery, do we really need more cats.
I could craft a convincing argument, but as Fred Barnard said, a picture’s worth a thousand words.
What? No rebuttal? Cat got your tongue?