Future Data Scientists, Roll up your Sleeves
Learning data science is a journey; you should enjoy the road because there is no destination. If you have already taken a course, do not wait until you finish the course to kick off your data science projects. Get your hands dirty with coding stuff; you do not need to wait until you learn all the theoretical aspects of statistics and machine learning to perform exploratory data analysis or build accurate machine learning models.
Do not be a perfectionist. When you start a data science project, no matter big or small, it can significantly smooth your learning curve and leverage your productivity. You will realize that you learn better with experiments and learning by doing instead of just diving into books and scientific articles.
Do not fear mistakes and error messages in red; there are integral parts of your journey.
My advice as a senior data scientist is that just jump into the data science ocean, I believe you will learn how to save your life!
When I want to learn a new skill, I usually start with my shallow knowledge and see where my knowledge falls short, and then learn those skills. In this hybrid approach, we have three steps:
- Study a bit.
- Do a tiny project.
- Repeat.
Eventually, by knitting together these small projects, you will become a master on a significant part of the learning path.
Learning by doing deepens your knowledge and encourages you to learn more and more, and strengthening your coding skills prepares you for real-world projects.
