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“It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data.” – Sherlock Holmes
Data scientist tend to appear to be wizards who grab their magical crystal balls, chant some mumbo-jumbo, and come up with extremely detailed predictions of what a business’s future may hold. No matter how much you wish it was, data science is not magic. The power that data science brings comes from a complete understanding of algorithms and statistics, hacking and programming, and communication skills. Even more important, data science is all about using these skill sets in a systematic and disciplined way.
A data scientist manages big data. They take a large amount of data points and use their skills in programming, math, and statistics to organize, clean, and massage them. They then use their analytic powers, skepticism of existing assumptions, contextual understanding, and industry knowledge to find hidden solutions for challenges to a business.
