I have great memories of being young and obsessed with building model cars. These miniature models of classic cars were built from plastic kits, going from picking the plastic components out individually, then following the visual instructions one by one until the car was fully assembled with glue. I would then paint some flames along the sides, soon after running to my family to show off what I created. Later, moving on to building with Meccano, assembling all manner of contraptions. I attempted to build a marble gun with Meccano pieces and a hand held fan. Didn’t turn out to be as powerful as I hoped.
When building these childhood relics, I remember time melting away as if it didn’t exist, I was fully immersed, hunched over my desk under a lamp, it felt good. I guess you could call it flow. A few years after I realised I could reach this state with problem solving, puzzles, games and math – if there was a solution to be discovered, I wanted to prove to myself that I could figure it out, and when I did it felt good. Little did I know that it would be the inherent motivation behind my day job today.
For those of you who are like me, who find peace or pleasure in problem solving and creating- then this blog may be for you. If you hope to find a path in life that enables you to problem solve and create each day – then this blog is definitely for you.
This blog is my personal collection of nuggets of wisdom for becoming a data scientist. Almost all of these practical tips helped me become a data scientist. For the tips I did not follow, I retrospectively wish I had. It’s my belief that if you follow them, your chances of becoming a data scientist can increase by an order of magnitude. That doesn’t not mean to say it’s a complete checklist, nor will every tip be relevant for you. But it’s a collection substantial enough, that if followed, will send you on your way. I have purposely attempted to avoid vagueness and ambiguity where possible, the best advice is that of which can be easily interpreted and implemented.