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Why did you use death sentence cases as data? I've spent around 20 minutes just reading the last words of various executed people. It's... disturbing and distra

Why did you use death sentence cases as data? I've spent around 20 minutes just reading the last words of various executed people. It's... disturbing and distracting.

yAnonymous 8y ago
Why did you continue for 20 minutes if it disturbs you so much, little snow flake?
- wieghant 8y ago
  Why did you choose executions over something mundane like blogs or comments? Reading last statements isn't exactly something I want to be distracted by. The data is interesting sure and if this just happened to be based on something you did recently, I get it. It's not something I'd recommend to students doing data science or getting acquainted with SQL when there's less morbid source material out there. The interactivity provided is cool though, no doubt.
  - chris_wot 8y ago
    I found it engaging, and a truly real world example of how what we do can impact others, provide us with insights we might not normally have, and can help us influence the world around us.
- dang 8y ago
  This breaks the site guidelines. You unfortunately have a history of posting uncivilly to HN. If you would please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and follow the rules when posting here, we'd appreciate it. The idea here is: if you have a substantive point to make, to make it thoughtfully; and if you don't, to not comment until you do.
GedByrne 8y ago
The reason is explained in the front matter: “On one level, the data is simply a part of a mundane programming book. On another, each row represents immense suffering, lives lost, and in some cases amazing redemption and acceptance. In preparing for this dataset, I was deeply moved by a number of the statements and found myself re-evaluting my position on capital punishment. I hope that as we examine the data, you too will contemplate the deeper issues at play.”
weatherlight 8y ago
I love it :) It gives the data weight.
baby 8y ago
It's deep and moving, it makes this course more than just a course. I just fetched a few rows and read Beazley's last statement and I now have a great respect for the creator of this course.
- stbn 8y ago
  I strongly agree. Rarely do I see such a humanistic approach in tech. It brings an important matter to our attention and is meaningful. As a side note, what is meaningful is pedagogically valuable, because what has meaning is easier to remember.
zemo 8y ago
it's data that asks to be investigated. There is no reason to query meaningless data. A query that tells you something you didn't know is infinitely more useful than a query that tells you what you already knew, and a dataset that encourages you to ask your own questions and craft your own queries is infinitely more effective than, say, an imaginary book catalog or some other nonsense that doesn't at all tempt the student to ask more questions of the data. and besides: technology is a facet of society, it is not a purely rationalist act.

Why did you use death sentence cases as data? I've spent around 20 minutes just reading the last words of various executed people. It's... disturbing and distracting.

yAnonymous 8y ago

Why did you continue for 20 minutes if it disturbs you so much, little snow flake?

wieghant 8y ago
Why did you choose executions over something mundane like blogs or comments? Reading last statements isn't exactly something I want to be distracted by. The data is interesting sure and if this just happened to be based on something you did recently, I get it. It's not something I'd recommend to students doing data science or getting acquainted with SQL when there's less morbid source material out there. The interactivity provided is cool though, no doubt.
- chris_wot 8y ago
  I found it engaging, and a truly real world example of how what we do can impact others, provide us with insights we might not normally have, and can help us influence the world around us.
dang 8y ago
This breaks the site guidelines. You unfortunately have a history of posting uncivilly to HN. If you would please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and follow the rules when posting here, we'd appreciate it. The idea here is: if you have a substantive point to make, to make it thoughtfully; and if you don't, to not comment until you do.

GedByrne 8y ago

The reason is explained in the front matter: “On one level, the data is simply a part of a mundane programming book. On another, each row represents immense suffering, lives lost, and in some cases amazing redemption and acceptance. In preparing for this dataset, I was deeply moved by a number of the statements and found myself re-evaluting my position on capital punishment. I hope that as we examine the data, you too will contemplate the deeper issues at play.”

weatherlight 8y ago

I love it :) It gives the data weight.

baby 8y ago

It's deep and moving, it makes this course more than just a course. I just fetched a few rows and read Beazley's last statement and I now have a great respect for the creator of this course.

stbn 8y ago
I strongly agree. Rarely do I see such a humanistic approach in tech. It brings an important matter to our attention and is meaningful. As a side note, what is meaningful is pedagogically valuable, because what has meaning is easier to remember.

zemo 8y ago

it's data that asks to be investigated. There is no reason to query meaningless data. A query that tells you something you didn't know is infinitely more useful than a query that tells you what you already knew, and a dataset that encourages you to ask your own questions and craft your own queries is infinitely more effective than, say, an imaginary book catalog or some other nonsense that doesn't at all tempt the student to ask more questions of the data. and besides: technology is a facet of society, it is not a purely rationalist act.