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Data science is a very open field. Nearly everything we use is contributed by the community. Yet, we don't share our failures with the community for some reason
by robertritz 4y ago
Data science is a very open field. Nearly everything we use is contributed by the community. Yet, we don't share our failures with the community for some reason. I think we learn more from failure than from success, so I decided to share how I seriously messed up a recent project.
I thought it would be great to build a forecasting model for the US housing market. HA! I made several big mistakes:
- I started with a vague idea.
- I didn't know if the data was available or easy to get.
- Failing to start over and reassess when I realized the project was going in weird directions.
- The model's objective wasn't directly connected to the way the model might be used.
- I failed to appreciate the core of the problem was effectively predicting the economy, which is a much bigger and more complex problem.
I might not always make a blog post, but I will keep sharing my failures. Because we shouldn't be crabs in a bucket.