My experiences on shifting my career to Data Science.
A lot of people ask me why did I shift to a fairly new field of Data Science despite me not really excelling in mathematics. My simple is answer is “it’s the future.”
It might sound cliché saying that data science is the ‘future.’ but I really do believe this. Everyday we create stories and other raw form of data that everyone could observe from afar. (also in extreme cases, stalking) So with this reality at hand, it is safe to conclude that someone or something must be created to find value within these seemingly random numbers into applicable factors in all aspects of human society. Which eventually leads to the need for Data Science.
Data Science for me is generally finding some hidden treasure in a rubble of trash or an aftermath of a volcano eruption. Take for instance the earth, It has been in existence for a couple of billions of years and we could all agree that all innovation comes to discoveries in natural law that govern our actions. Fire → stove → steam engine → solar panel so on and so forth. So how did we do it? Observation.
Observation is the generally a basic innate skill that a human being is born with. You come out of your mother’s womb crying and a couple of months later you start to imitate things around you. (this is why we have parental guidance in TV shows) which later leads us to our decisions that shape our lives. We may not be in the same option set, status quo or environment from our predecessors but we do make similar actions in order to live our everyday life. We update our ‘database’ of observations everyday keeping the things that benefit or just entertains us. (this system maybe hacked or engineered by social norms and other factors but generally it keeps us alive)
So then I would like to ask you readers why aren’t we boosting our capabilities to learn or ‘super’ observe unknown patterns and other hidden knowledge through our innovations today? Honestly, I don’t have a sure answer. But what I do know is that there is a way to start creating such ‘super powers’ data analyzing capabilities within your own ecosystem of data. So my advice is start with your self-generated data and move to bigger data sets that seemed big at first.
Note: This post is generally my idea of what Data Science is and my perspective about vital need for Data Science in all fields of business.