Appreciate your answer and what the course is trying to do. All I'll add is, it's good to be aware of the contradiction all that data presents. The contradicti

Appreciate your answer and what the course is trying to do. All I'll add is, it's good to be aware of the contradiction all that data presents. The contradiction shows up in your post and I have a feeling you are aware of it. "Quickly exploring a domain" and "efficiently examining the data" are inherently contradictory. To resolve that contradiction (going back to my previous post) is to (a)get an expert involved as quickly as possible or (b)become the expert. And its healthy for someone starting out (be it a journo dabbling in compsci or a programmer dabbling in journalism) to keep asking themselves (based on their aptitude\motivational levels) which road they are taking.