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Data scientists are not programmers. They are data scientists. Just like I'm not a data scientists, I'm a programmer. Now, I can use pandas in a pinch and mak

Data scientists are not programmers. They are data scientists. Just like I'm not a data scientists, I'm a programmer. Now, I can use pandas in a pinch and makes pretty graphs, but my statistical analysis will never be on part with yours. Just like a pianist hobbyist will have a hard time to rival somebody who does that 40 hours a week, although he may be able to play a few fantastic pieces. Hell, even a web dev programmers, if ask to code a GUI desktop app, is not going to do a good job. IT is becoming a very large field. And scientists are not even from this field.

jstx1 5y ago
As a data scientist I spend more time writing software and building things than I spend doing statistical analysis (and I like it that way). That's why I consider it part of software development. Don't be tripped up by the word "scientist" in the job title (I wrote another comment about this in this thread). Also, it's a very broad field and it varies a lot from company to company - if you've had some interactions with data scientists, don't assume that what they do applies across the industry. I'm basing what I'm writing on having worked at/with companies of different sizes and in different industries.
- BiteCode_dev 5y ago
  If you want to play with names and semantics, I'll leave you to it. That's not my point.
  - jstx1 5y ago
    Well, my overall point was that you got the names and semantics wrong.
cycomanic 5y ago
You essentially say that a web dev and an GUI desktop programmer, are both programmers even though they can't do each others job, but a data scientist who programs all day is not a programmer? That seems like a pretty arbitrary distinction. I would agree with the OP, that data scientists are often essentially programmers they just require a very different skill set than an web dev, but their required skill-set is probably closer to a compiler programmer than the web-dev is.

jstx1 5y ago

As a data scientist I spend more time writing software and building things than I spend doing statistical analysis (and I like it that way). That's why I consider it part of software development. Don't be tripped up by the word "scientist" in the job title (I wrote another comment about this in this thread). Also, it's a very broad field and it varies a lot from company to company - if you've had some interactions with data scientists, don't assume that what they do applies across the industry. I'm basing what I'm writing on having worked at/with companies of different sizes and in different industries.

BiteCode_dev 5y ago
If you want to play with names and semantics, I'll leave you to it. That's not my point.
- jstx1 5y ago
  Well, my overall point was that you got the names and semantics wrong.

cycomanic 5y ago

You essentially say that a web dev and an GUI desktop programmer, are both programmers even though they can't do each others job, but a data scientist who programs all day is not a programmer? That seems like a pretty arbitrary distinction. I would agree with the OP, that data scientists are often essentially programmers they just require a very different skill set than an web dev, but their required skill-set is probably closer to a compiler programmer than the web-dev is.