[tastygreenapple]

Whenever I talk to people about data science I repeat the old adage:

A data scientist is a statistician who can program or a programmer who understands statistics at a high level.

It's amazing how few CS people become data scientists, I think physics and economics degrees are the most common degrees among elite DSs I know.

but it actually makes a lot of sense - it's relatively easy to pick up coding. In fact, it could be the best-taught skill on the internet, there's no shortage of material for a person who wants to learn to code. I think that most CS people don't learn enough statistics to really pursue DS and a ton of people with advanced stats knowledge can pickup coding relatively easily.

Now when I talk to kids, I tell them that if they want to go to college, they should try to learn something they can't learn on their own.

[javabird]

great words