[altdatathrow]

> there are a bunch of other software developers who know SQL very well. If your advice was true, then every backend developer would be able to immediately land a data science job

I fully disagree. Most backend developers don't know SQL beyond their ORM library or CRUD statements. The business intelligence world has utilized SQL to analyze data and make effective business decisions for 40+ years.

ML is 90% hype to check a box for investors, and the actual business problems could be solved by a semi-competent analyst armed with Excel or SQL, not a bunch of overpaid "scientists" who completed a few Andrew Ng courses.