It's statistics in a funky new dress, and about as required for programmers in general as math-heavy type systems or in-depth concurrent programming. But it's

It's statistics in a funky new dress, and about as required for programmers in general as math-heavy type systems or in-depth concurrent programming. But it's something in the webapp world that isn't just about massaging strings and reports or connecting libraries, so people flock to it both for resume-padding and much-needed variety.