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The essence of what is a Data Scientist boils down to this awesome tweet by Josh Wills (@cloudera): https://twitter.com/josh_wills/status/198093512149958656 htt

The essence of what is a Data Scientist boils down to this awesome tweet by Josh Wills (@cloudera): https://twitter.com/josh_wills/status/198093512149958656 https://twitter.com/josh_wills/status/198093512149958656 Data Scientist (n.): Person who is better at statistics than any software engineer and better at software engineering than any statistician.

danso 14y ago
This is a very apt way to describe the job...but is "data scientist" really the right term? Because there are many, many scientists who are terrible at software engineering, despite being great at research and analysis. Wouldn't we call what @cloudera refers to, "data engineers"?
defen 14y ago
Echoes of A.J. Liebling: "I can write better than anybody who can write faster, and I can write faster than anybody who can write better." ---- Leading to a generalized strategy for success: 1) Identify two orthogonal metrics by which your work will be judged by relevant stakeholders. 2) Work / practice until you are better than anyone by at least one of those metrics (in practice, better than the large majority of your competitors). The degenerate case involves being the best in the world by at least one of the metrics; more achievable is to be somewhere in the middle for each. To use our own patio11 as an example: be better at coding than anyone who is better at SEO, and be better at SEO than anyone who is a better coder.
- sadga 14y ago
  Only n people are the best at something, but n^2 people are the best at pairs of things.
  - jules 14y ago
    Actually, an infinite number of people can be Pareto optimal at just two things.
- bo1024 14y ago
  To be slightly more precise, if your two metrics are A and B, it's 2) Out of the set of people who are at least as good at A, you are better at B; and/or of the set of people who are at least as good at B, you're better at A. or 2) Nobody in the world is better than you at both A and B simultaneously.
- patio11 14y ago
  Ooh, I like that even more than I like my usual explanation: the "Venn diagram game." (One circle gestures with fingers represents all X, one represents all Y, take the intersection, there's only like four people in it and three of them can't be hired for love or money.) I don't typically sell engagements primarily for SEO, by the way. (I also don't think that it is the case that I would not be strictly dominated by someone, somewhere on those two axes. If you phrase it like "Among the universe of people a potential client could actually hire" then my confidence that there exists a better option than me falls rapidly for each constraint you impose on the hiring pool.)
- SatvikBeri 14y ago
  I can code better than anybody who understands the domain, knows statistics, is in the right location, available, works well with both business people and technical people, likes AI, and is 5'7'' tall. (But seriously: I do sell myself as the technical guy who understands business, and it works wonders).
gaius 14y ago
Any software engineer? Any statistician? Data scientists are to business analysts as Sanitation Engineers are to janitors. And that's all. Everything they think they're discovering, guys already did with supermarket loyalty programmes, frequent flyer programmes, etc 20 or 30 years ago. Read and learn: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AAdvantage#History http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AAdvantage#History

danso 14y ago

This is a very apt way to describe the job...but is "data scientist" really the right term? Because there are many, many scientists who are terrible at software engineering, despite being great at research and analysis. Wouldn't we call what @cloudera refers to, "data engineers"?

defen 14y ago

Echoes of A.J. Liebling: "I can write better than anybody who can write faster, and I can write faster than anybody who can write better." ---- Leading to a generalized strategy for success: 1) Identify two orthogonal metrics by which your work will be judged by relevant stakeholders. 2) Work / practice until you are better than anyone by at least one of those metrics (in practice, better than the large majority of your competitors). The degenerate case involves being the best in the world by at least one of the metrics; more achievable is to be somewhere in the middle for each. To use our own patio11 as an example: be better at coding than anyone who is better at SEO, and be better at SEO than anyone who is a better coder.

sadga 14y ago
Only n people are the best at something, but n^2 people are the best at pairs of things.
- jules 14y ago
  Actually, an infinite number of people can be Pareto optimal at just two things.
bo1024 14y ago
To be slightly more precise, if your two metrics are A and B, it's 2) Out of the set of people who are at least as good at A, you are better at B; and/or of the set of people who are at least as good at B, you're better at A. or 2) Nobody in the world is better than you at both A and B simultaneously.
patio11 14y ago
Ooh, I like that even more than I like my usual explanation: the "Venn diagram game." (One circle gestures with fingers represents all X, one represents all Y, take the intersection, there's only like four people in it and three of them can't be hired for love or money.) I don't typically sell engagements primarily for SEO, by the way. (I also don't think that it is the case that I would not be strictly dominated by someone, somewhere on those two axes. If you phrase it like "Among the universe of people a potential client could actually hire" then my confidence that there exists a better option than me falls rapidly for each constraint you impose on the hiring pool.)
SatvikBeri 14y ago
I can code better than anybody who understands the domain, knows statistics, is in the right location, available, works well with both business people and technical people, likes AI, and is 5'7'' tall. (But seriously: I do sell myself as the technical guy who understands business, and it works wonders).

gaius 14y ago

Any software engineer? Any statistician? Data scientists are to business analysts as Sanitation Engineers are to janitors. And that's all. Everything they think they're discovering, guys already did with supermarket loyalty programmes, frequent flyer programmes, etc 20 or 30 years ago. Read and learn: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AAdvantage#History http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AAdvantage#History