Many years ago I decided that programming would be a natural path for my career as a Web Designer, which I had been doing for almost three years. To land more freelance work I got involved with WordPress and gradually explored PHP until I could call myself a "WordPress developer" — ask me to build a custom post type, but don't ask me for a dedicated class to handle images, for example. That's how I approached the programming world for the last 15 years: Python came along, JS frameworks, Node.js, and lots of infrastructure with Linux, CI/CD, and so on.
And now for something completely different.
Data has always been a curiosity of mine. From political polls on TV talking about the famous "margin of error" that left me wondering (why 2 points and not 4 or 6? And why plus or minus? Did nobody reach a conclusion?); with the rise of infographics I was fascinated by the limitless creativity to illustrate all kinds of data, even when it became impossible to understand because of unconventional layouts.
Following the rapid evolution of Machine Learning and AI, plus so many other interests in journalism, politics, sports, and a little experience working alongside data teams at companies I've been through, it seems increasingly clear that this is my new challenge: Data Science and all the complexity around it — because the foundation of this field is exactly my weakness: Mathematics, and that changes everything.
How to learn how to learn?
Look, I don't struggle with the subject — I have complete dread, a real trigger! I'll never forget that my highest geometry grade ever was a tearful 3 out of 10, and that matters because illustrating problems seems very important from what I see when researching math topics.
So I seek all the help I can, because unlike programming where being self-taught is essential to stay current, in data science I need as many mentors as possible to understand years of mathematical knowledge I have no idea how works.
I'm currently taking an online course and an elective on Data Science; to raise my math level I went back to zero and I'm following Khan Academy tracks on the subject. On Amazon I have some books saved for a future purchase, while on YouTube the number of videos on the topic only grows.
Accountability — why not?
One thing that always works is asking friends for help to stay accountable with studies. That's what I'm doing here — I'm asking for your help too to stay on track, and I'll use this space to document everything I learn in this area.
Thank you, and see you soon. 😄