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I'm having trouble understanding the definitions of these roles. I see the chart, but the terms are all vague to me. What does a data scientist do that a math
by gpcz 12y ago
I'm having trouble understanding the definitions of these roles. I see the chart, but the terms are all vague to me. What does a data scientist do that a mathematician or scientist doesn't do, and what does a scientific programmer do that a data scientist doesn't do?
My impression was that "data scientist" was a colloquialism for "statistician that knows how to program." Is a scientific programmer just a programmer that knows some statistics? Why is the direction important? The author says he/she feels that a programmer that knows statistics can make "more robust software" than the other way around, but what exactly does that mean? Do they mean "doesn't crash as much", or do they mean "gives the right answer more often?"
- tarikjn 12y agofor one thing statistics don't really encompass A.I., computer vision etc.
- tjl 12y agoBasically all of my Master's and PhD work involved scientific programming, but it was definitely not data scientist work. You're making a big assumption that science is statistics. There's scientific simulations (and deriving the models) and scientific visualization as well. Those are only two out of many possibilities.
- collyw 12y agoRobust software generally refers to it not crashing. "Correct software" would be how I described software that "gives the right answer more often".
- gaius 12y agoThe funny thing is: statisticians do know how to program, they just do it in R instead of some hipster language.
- rgoddard 12y agoData scientist - Here is a metric ton of data, find something useful from it Scientific Programmer - Here is a set of physical laws and differential equations which govern this chemical reaction, write a simulation for it Mathematician - This looks like a fun theorem to prove Scientist - This looks like a fun hypothesis to test