3 ms·

I think the name means something, data science to me means you're more focused on the tools and less on the theory. And that a VERY dangerous attitude to take i

by wfo 11y ago

I think the name means something, data science to me means you're more focused on the tools and less on the theory. And that a VERY dangerous attitude to take in statistics. It's really, really easy to apply tools and get a model that looks quantitative and explanatory and good but is actually trash. It's really hard to tell the difference between good work and bad work. Statistics is very, very complicated and finicky in theory and practice and I think we'll need a better way to tell the charlatans from the experts. Maybe the title will work as a general rule of thumb as people self-select -- data scientist = knows how to load a data set into R and type 'lm', statistician = actual expert

washedup 11y ago
People who attempt data science without validating the statistics should eventually end up with a pretty bad track record and leave the "data scientist" job market. My perception of what data scientist currently means is a statistician who knows how to program machine learning algorithms and manage large data sets. Based on what you are saying, there are a lot of impostors out there, which is most likely true. However, every time I see a job posting for a data scientist, it almost always requires some formal math or statistics background.