The purpose of this blog is to explore data science topics and record my data science journey. In this post I want to explore three areas: How my curiosity led me to data science, how my job experience involved data science, and some topics I’d like to learn in the near future.
Freakonomics — we all read the book or heard about “the hidden side of everything”. Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner use data to explain why drug dealers still live with their moms or what schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common. The Freakonomics podcast opened my mind to the possibility that everything has an explanation if you ask the right questions and know where to look. The idea that stories live in the data led me down a road of nonfiction. I consumed books by Malcolm Gladwell and Michael Lewis and spent hours listening to podcasts by Joe Rogan and Tim Ferris. I learned that every aspect of society uses data to learn something new. From the assembly line workers at meat packing plants in Iowa to the COVID tracing apps in smartphones, data is more relevant today than ever before. With data, understanding of the past and our predictions about the future is rooted in real world experience. The data matters.
CPA — Teacher — Data Scientist — In retrospect, I can see how data science was a core competency throughout my previous jobs. As an assurance auditor, data manipulation was an essential tool. My peers joked that there are two types of accountants: those that love accounting and those that know how to use excel. This was my first look into database systems and the role they play in Fortune 500 companies. My next job as a revenue assurance manager quickly evolved into a database management role. I was tasked with finding the inefficiencies in our ice cream delivery system but a problem quickly emerged. How could I analyze key metrics if the data wasn’t properly stored or I didn’t know how to access it? To solve this challenge, I quickly learned how to make database updates with Microsoft Access and retrieve data with SQL. My manager gave me the autonomy to work with the real time data. Finally my work as a principal and teacher at a school showed me that current pedagogy of teaching puts a huge emphasis on data. Teachers are expected to capture, analyze and act on data from their students. Whether it’s reading level or math concepts, data drives the discussion. Data was present in all of my jobs as a central role in the business.
Some topics I’ve written in my notebook to learn about include the following:
- The Turing Test
- Signal — a new messaging app built by a non-profit company. They believe that bad business models lead to bad technology. Companies can either protect the machine or encrypt the data. Signal does the latter.
- “The Algorithm” — pop culture talks a lot about tech company algorithms, but what does this code actually do?
- When science fiction becomes reality — What science fiction should I know that is common in the industry.
- Graphs in the news — I’m collecting graphs I see in news articles. More to come.
