It's hard for most people entering this field because the incentives are perverted - there's this perception that DS is sexy and you actually don't need to know

It's hard for most people entering this field because the incentives are perverted - there's this perception that DS is sexy and you actually don't need to know coding that much (just enough to scikit learn). Thus people with pipe dreams of tweaking model hyperparameters to spin gold come in and get a rude awakening. Not a lot unlike people flocking to become actors to LA.