I've seen you write something similar to this before, but I don't agree. Counterexample: a good friend of mine specialized in computer graphics where he did a

I've seen you write something similar to this before, but I don't agree. Counterexample: a good friend of mine specialized in computer graphics where he did a lot of math-heavy research. I specialized in machine learning where I also did a lot of math-heavy research. We are both full-time programmers who choose our tools and flexibly work on interesting projects, but he would never get hired as a "data scientist", whereas I did. I think anyone who has specialized enough in something that's useful to a company can find a good, flexible job (e.g. my graphics friend and me). The fact that the term "data scientist" is so ubiquitous simply means it's cooler/more useful than other specializations right now. Some companies may get away with abusing the title because it's so vague, but it does mean something to companies that actually know they need one.