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8,259FollowersincludingYuvalFeinstein,
AlgorithmicSoftwareEngineerinNLP,IRand
MachineLearningAbhishekKuntalKeerti
YuvalFeinstein
AgrawalRyanFoxSquire
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NLP,IRandMachineLearning
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DataScience,andBecomingaDataScientist

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WilliamChen,DataScientistatQuora
631.1kViewsUpvotedbyRyanFoxSquire,NeuroscientistTurnedDataScientist
WilliamisaMostViewedWriterinDataScience.

Herearesomeamazingandcompletelyfreeresourcesonlinethatyoucan
usetoteachyourselfdatascience.
Besidesthispage,IwouldhighlyrecommendtheOfficialQuoraDataScienceFAQasyour
comprehensiveguidetodatascience!Itincludesresourcessimilartothisone,aswellas
adviceonpreparingfordatascienceinterviews.Additionally,followtheQuoraData
Sciencetopicifyouhaven'talreadytogetupdatesonnewquestionsandanswers!

Fulfillyourprerequisites
Beforeyoubegin,youneedMultivariableCalculus,LinearAlgebra,andPython.Ifyour
mathbackgroundisuptomultivariablecalculusandlinearalgebra,you'llhaveenough
backgroundtounderstandalmostalloftheprobability/statistics/machinelearningfor
thejob.
MultivariateCalculus:Whatarethebestresourcesformasteringmultivariable
calculus?
NumericalLinearAlgebra/ComputationalLinearAlgebra/MatrixAlgebra:
LinearAlgebra ,Coursera (starts2/2/2015)
Multivariatecalculusisusefulforsomepartsofmachinelearningandalotofprobability.
Linear/Matrixalgebraisabsolutelynecessaryforalotofconceptsinmachinelearning.

Retrieval,Elasticsearch,and13more
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MoreRelatedQuestions

Youalsoneedsomeprogrammingbackgroundtobegin,preferablyinPython.Mostother
thingsonthisguidecanbelearnedonthejob(likerandomforests,pandas,A/Btesting),
butyoucan'tgetawaywithoutknowinghowtoprogram!
Pythonisthemostimportantlanguageforadatascientisttolearn.Tolearnto
code,moreaboutPython,andwhyPythonissoimportant,checkout
HowdoIlearntocode?
HowdoIlearnPython?
WhyisPythonalanguageofchoicefordatascientists?
IsPythonthemostimportantprogramminglanguagetolearnforaspiringdata
scientists&dataminers?

Ifyou'recurrentlyinschool,takestatisticsandcomputerscienceclasses.Check
outWhatclassesshouldItakeifIwanttobecomeadatascientist?

PlugYourselfIntotheCommunity
CheckoutMeetup tofindsomethatinterestyou!Attendaninterestingtalk,learnabout
datasciencelive,andmeetdatascientistsandotheraspirationaldatascientists.Start
readingdatascienceblogsandfollowinginfluentialdatascientists:
Whatarethebestblogsaboutdata?
Whatisyoursourceofmachinelearninganddatasciencenews?Why?

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DataScience:whataresomebestusers/agenciestofollowonTwitter,Facebook,
G+,andLinkedIn?
WhatarethebestTwitteraccountsaboutdata?

SetupandLearntouseyourtools
Python
InstallPython,iPython,andrelatedlibraries(guide )
HowdoIlearnPython?
R
InstallR andRStudio (IwouldsaythatRisthesecondmostimportant
language.It'sgoodtoknowbothPythonandR)
LearnRwithswirl

SublimeText
InstallSublimeText
What'sthebestwaytolearntouseSublimeText?
SQL
HowdoIlearnSQL?(YoucanpracticeitusingthesqlitepackageinPython)

LearnProbabilityandStatistics
BesuretogothroughacoursethatinvolvesheavyapplicationinRorPython.Knowing
probabilityandstatisticswillonlyreallybehelpfulifyoucanimplementwhatyoulearn.
PythonApplication:ThinkStats (freepdf )(Pythonfocus)
RApplications:AnIntroductiontoStatisticalLearning (freepdf )(MOOC )
(Rfocus)
PrintoutacopyofProbabilityCheatsheet

CompleteHarvard'sDataScienceCourse
AsofFall2015,thecourseiscurrentlyinitsthirdyearandstrivestobeasapplicableand
helpfulaspossibleforstudentswhoareinterestedinbecomingdatascientists.Anexample
ofhowisthishappeningistheintroductionofSparkandSQLstartingthisyear.
ThiscourseisdevelopedinpartbyafellowQuorauser,ProfessorJoeBlitzstein.Hereare
allofthematerials!
Intrototheclass
Whatisitliketodesignadatascienceclass?
WhatisitliketotakeCS109/Statistics121(DataScience)atHarvard?

CourseMaterials
Classmainpage:CS109DataScience
Lectures,Slides,andLabs:ClassMaterial

Assignments
IntrotoPython,Numpy,Matplotlib(Homework0 )(Solutions )
PollAggregation,WebScraping,Plotting,ModelEvaluation,and
Forecasting(Homework1 )(Solutions )
DataPrediction,Manipulation,andEvaluation(Homework2 )
(Solutions )
PredictiveModeling,ModelCalibration,SentimentAnalysis
(Homework3 )(Solutions )
RecommendationEngines,UsingMapreduce(Homework4 )
(Solutions )
NetworkVisualizationandAnalysis(Homework5 )(Solutions )

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Labs
(thesearethe2013labs.Forthe2015labs,checkoutClassMaterial )
Lab2:WebScraping
Lab3:EDA,Pandas,Matplotlib
Lab4:ScikitLearn,Regression,PCA
Lab5:Bias,Variance,CrossValidation
Lab6:Bayes,LinearRegression,andMetropolisSampling
Lab7:GibbsSampling
Lab8:MapReduce
Lab9:Networks
Lab10:SupportVectorMachines

DomostofKaggle'sGettingStartedandPlaygroundCompetitions
IwouldNOTrecommenddoinganyoftheprizemoneycompetitions.Theyusuallyhave
datasetsthataretoolarge,complicated,orannoying,andarenotgoodforlearning
(Kaggle.com )
Startbylearningscikitlearn,playingaround,readingthroughtutorialsandforumsat
DataScienceLondon+Scikitlearn forasimple,synthetic,binaryclassificationtask.
Next,playaroundsomemoreandcheckoutthetutorialsforTitanic:MachineLearning
fromDisaster withaslightlymorecomplicatedbinaryclassificationtask(with
categoricalvariables,missingvalues,etc.)
Afterwards,trysomemulticlassclassificationwithForestCoverTypePrediction .
Now,tryaregressiontaskBikeSharingDemand thatinvolvesincorporating
timestamps.TryoutsomenaturallanguageprocessingwithSentimentAnalysison
MovieReviews .Finally,tryoutanyoftheotherknowledgebasedcompetitionsthat
interestyou!

LearnSomeDataScienceElectives
ProductMetricswillteachyouaboutwhatcompaniestrack,whatmetricsthey
findimportant,andhowcompaniesmeasuretheirsuccess:The27Metricsin
PinterestsInternalGrowthDashboard
Optimizationwillhelpyouwithunderstandingstatisticsandmachinelearning:
ConvexOptimizationBoydandVandenberghe
A/BTestingisjustarebrandedversionofwhatpharmaceuticalcompanieshave
beendoingfordecades.LearnmoreaboutA/Btestinghere:HowdoIlearn
aboutA/Btesting?
VisualizationIwouldrecommendpickingupggplot2inRtomakesimpleyet
beautifulgraphicsandjustbrowsingDataIsBeautiful/r/dataisbeautiful and
FlowingData forideasandinspiration.
UserBehaviorThissetofblogspostslooksusefulandinterestingThis
ExplainsEverything"UserBehavior
FeatureEngineeringCheckoutMLconf2015Seattle:Whataresomebestpracticesin
FeatureEngineering?andthisgreatexample:http://nbviewer.ipython.org/gith...
BigDataTechnologiesThesearetoolsandframeworksdevelopedspecificallytodeal
withmassiveamountsofdata.HowdoIlearnbigdatatechnologies?
MachineLearningHowdoIlearnmachinelearning?Thisisanextremelyrich
areawithmassiveamountsofpotential.AndrewNg'sMachineLearningcourseon
CourseraisoneofthemostpopularMOOCs,andagreatwaytostart!AndrewNg's
MachineLearningMOOC
NaturalLanguageProcessingThisisthepracticeofturningtextdataintonumerical
datawhilststillpreservingthe"meaning".Learningthiswillletyouanalyzenew,exciting
formsofdata.HowdoIlearnNaturalLanguageProcessing(NLP)?
TimeSeriesAnalysisHowdoIlearnabouttimeseriesanalysis?
BuildingaDataCulturehttp://www.oreilly.com/data/free...

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DoaCapstoneProduct/SideProject
Useyournewdatascienceandsoftwareengineeringskillstobuildsomethingthatwill
makeotherpeoplesaywow!Thiscanbeawebsite,newwayoflookingatadataset,cool
visualization,oranything!
DataScience:Whataresomegoodtoyproblemsindatascience?
RecommendationSystems:HowcanIstartbuildingarecommendationengine?
WhataresomeideasforaquickweekendPythonproject?
WhatisagoodmeasureoftheinfluenceofaTwitteruser?
WherecanIfindlargedatasetsopentothepublic?
Whataresomegoodalgorithmsforaprioritizedinbox?
Whataresomegooddatascienceprojects?
Createpublicgithubrepositories,makeablog,andpostyourwork,sideprojects,Kaggle
solutions,insights,andthoughts!Thishelpsyougainvisibility,buildaportfolioforyour
resume,andconnectwithotherpeopleworkingonthesametasks.

GetaDataScienceInternshiporJob
HowdoIprepareforadatascientistinterview?
HowshouldIprepareforstatisticsquestionsforadatascienceinterview?
WhatkindofA/BtestingquestionsshouldIexpectinadatascientistinterview
andhowshouldIprepareforsuchquestions?
Whatcompanieshavedatascienceinternships?
WhataresometipstochoosewhetherIwanttoapplyforaDataScienceor
SoftwareEngineeringinternship?
Whenisthebesttimetoapplyfordatasciencesummerinternships?

CheckoutTheOfficialQuoraDataScienceFAQ formorediscussiononinternships,jobs,
anddatascienceinterviewprocesses!ThedatascienceFAQalsolinkstomorespecific
versionsofthisquestion,likeHowdoIbecomeadatascientistwithoutaPhD?orthe
counterpart,HowdoIbecomeadatascientistasaPhDstudent?

ThinklikeaDataScientist
InadditiontotheconcretestepsIlistedabovetodeveloptheskillsetofadatascientist,I
includesevenchallengesbelowsoyoucanlearntothinklikeadatascientistand
developtherightattitudetobecomeone.

(1)Satiateyourcuriositythroughdata
Asadatascientistyouwriteyourownquestionsandanswers.Datascientists
arenaturallycuriousaboutthedatathatthey'relookingat,andarecreativewithwaysto
approachandsolvewhateverproblemneedstobesolved.
Muchofdatascienceisnottheanalysisitself,butdiscoveringaninteresting
questionandfiguringouthowtoanswerit.
Herearetwogreatexamples:
Hilary:themostpoisonedbabynameinUShistory
ALookatFireResponseData

Challenge:Thinkofaproblemortopicyou'reinterestedinandansweritwithdata!

(2)Readnewswithaskepticaleye
Muchofthecontributionofadatascientist(andwhyit'sreallyhardtoreplaceadata
scientistwithamachine),isthatadatascientistwilltellyouwhat'simportantandwhat's
spurious.Thispersistentskepticismishealthyinallsciences,andisespeciallynecessarilyin

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afastpacedenvironmentwhereit'stooeasytoletaspuriousresultbemisinterpreted.
Youcanadoptthismindsetyourselfbyreadingnewswithacriticaleye.Manynews
articleshaveinherentlyflawedmainpremises.Trythesetwoarticles.Sample
answersareavailableinthecomments.
Easier:YouLoveYouriPhone.Literally.
Harder:WhopredictedRussiasmilitaryintervention?
Challenge:Dothiseverydaywhenyouencounteranewsarticle.Commentonthearticle
andpointouttheflaws.

(3)Seedataasatooltoimproveconsumerproducts
Visitaconsumerinternetproduct(probablythatyouknowdoesn'tdoextensiveA/B
testingalready),andthenthinkabouttheirmainfunnel.Dotheyhaveacheckoutfunnel?
Dotheyhaveasignupfunnel?Dotheyhaveavirilitymechanism?Dotheyhavean
engagementfunnel?
Gothroughthefunnelmultipletimesandhypothesizeaboutdifferentwaysitcoulddo
bettertoincreaseacoremetric(conversionrate,shares,signups,etc.).Designan
experimenttoverifyifyoursuggestedchangecanactuallychangethecoremetric.
Challenge:Shareitwiththefeedbackemailfortheconsumerinternetsite!

(4)ThinklikeaBayesian
TothinklikeaBayesian,avoidtheBaseratefallacy .Thismeanstoformnewbeliefsyou
mustincorporatebothnewlyobservedinformationANDpriorinformationformedthrough
intuitionandexperience.
Checkingyourdashboard,userengagementnumbersaresignificantlydown
today.Whichofthefollowingismostlikely?
1.Usersaresuddenlylessengaged
2.Featureofsitebroke
3.Loggingfeaturebroke
Eventhoughexplanation#1completelyexplainsthedrop,#2and#3shouldbemore
likelybecausetheyhaveamuchhigherpriorprobability.
You'reinseniormanagementatTesla,andfiveofTesla'sModelS'shave
caughtfireinthelastfivemonths.Whichismorelikely?
1.ManufacturingqualityhasdecreasedandTeslasshouldnowbedeemedunsafe.
2.SafetyhasnotchangedandfiresinTeslaModelS'sarestillmuchrarerthantheir
counterpartsingasolinecars.
While#1isaneasyexplanation(andgreatformediacoverage),yourpriorshouldbe
strongon#2becauseofyourregularqualitytesting.However,youshouldstillbeseeking
informationthatcanupdateyourbeliefson#1versus#2(andstillfindwaystoimprove
safety).Questionforthought:whatinformationshouldyouseek?
Challenge:IdentifythelasttimeyoucommittedtheBaseRateFallacy.Avoidcommitting
thefallacyfromnowon.

(5)Knowthelimitationsofyourtools
Knowledgeisknowingthatatomatoisafruit,wisdomisnotputtingitinafruitsalad.
MilesKington
Knowledgeisknowinghowtoperformaordinarylinearregression,wisdomisrealizing
howrareitappliescleanlyinpractice.
KnowledgeisknowingfivedifferentvariationsofKmeansclustering,wisdomisrealizing

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howrarelyactualdatacanbecleanlyclustered,andhowpoorlyKmeansclusteringcan
workwithtoomanyfeatures.
Knowledgeisknowingavastrangeofsophisticatedtechniques,butwisdomisbeingableto
choosetheonethatwillprovidethemostamountofimpactforthecompanyina
reasonableamountoftime.
YoumaydevelopavastrangeoftoolswhileyougothroughyourCourseraorEdXcourses,
butyourtoolboxisnotusefuluntilyouknowwhichtoolstouse.
Challenge:Applyseveraltoolstoarealdatasetanddiscoverthetradeoffsandlimitations
ofeachtools.Whichtoolsworkedbest,andcanyoufigureoutwhy?

(6)Teachacomplicatedconcept
HowdoesRichardFeynmandistinguishwhichconceptsheunderstandsandwhich
conceptshedoesn't?
Feynmanwasatrulygreatteacher.Hepridedhimselfonbeingabletodevisewaysto
explaineventhemostprofoundideastobeginningstudents.Once,Isaidtohim,"Dick,
explaintome,sothatIcanunderstandit,whyspinonehalfparticlesobeyFermiDirac
statistics."Sizinguphisaudienceperfectly,Feynmansaid,"I'llprepareafreshman
lectureonit."Buthecamebackafewdayslatertosay,"Icouldn'tdoit.Icouldn't
reduceittothefreshmanlevel.Thatmeanswedon'treallyunderstandit."DavidL.
Goodstein,Feynman'sLostLecture:TheMotionofPlanetsAroundtheSun
WhatdistinguishedRichardFeynmanwashisabilitytodistillcomplexconceptsinto
comprehendibleideas.Similarly,whatdistinguishestopdatascientistsistheirabilityto
cogentlysharetheirideasandexplaintheiranalyses.
Checkouthttps://www.quora.com/EdwinChen...forexamplesofcogentlyexplained
technicalconcepts.
Challenge:Teachatechnicalconcepttoafriendoronapublicforum,likeQuoraor
YouTube.

(7)Convinceothersaboutwhat'simportant
Perhapsevenmoreimportantthanadatascientist'sabilitytoexplaintheiranalysisistheir
abilitytocommunicatethevalueandpotentialimpactoftheactionable
insights.
Certaintasksofdatasciencewillbecommoditizedasdatasciencetools
becomebetterandbetter.Newtoolswillmakeobsoletecertaintaskssuchaswriting
dashboards,unnecessarydatawrangling,andevenspecifickindsofpredictivemodeling.
However,theneedforadatascientisttoextractoutandcommunicatewhat's
importantwillneverbemadeobsolete.Withincreasingamountsofdataandpotential
insights,companieswillalwaysneeddatascientists(orpeopleindatasciencelikeroles),
totriageallthatcanbedoneandprioritizetasksbasedonimpact.
Thedatascientist'sroleinthecompanyistheserveastheambassadorbetweenthe
dataandthecompany.Thesuccessofadatascientistismeasuredbyhowwellhe/she
cantellastoryandmakeanimpact.Everyotherskillisamplifiedbythisability.
Challenge:Tellastorywithstatistics.Communicatetheimportantfindingsinadataset.
Makeaconvincingpresentationthatyouraudiencecaresabout.
Ifyoulikedthisanswer,pleaseconsider:
1. FollowingtheOfficialQuoraDataScienceFAQ
2. Followingme(WilliamChen)andmyQuorablogatStorytellingwithStatisticsto
getnotifiedwhenIpostmorecontentlikethis!
3. Sharingthispostwithyourfriends!
UpdatedNov27ViewUpvotes

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Upvote 6.1k

Downvote Comments 58+

Share 97

PronojitSaha,DataAficionado.
97kViewsUpvotedbyRyanFoxSquire,NeuroscientistTurnedDataScientist
PronojitisaMostViewedWriterinJobsandCareersinDataScience.
OriginallyAnswered:HowdoIbecomeadatascientist?

SELFSTARTERWAY
Foraselfstarternovice,hereisanoutlinethatonecanstartwith.(thisisreproducedfrom
myblogHowtoacquirethe"EssentialSkillSet"?theSelfStarterway).
0.BasicPrerequisites:
Mathematics,Algorithms&Databases:Mathispower4uCalculus ,Coursera
LinearAlgebra ,CourseraAnalysisofAlgorithms ,CourseraIntroductionto
Databases
Statistics:ProbabilityandStatisticsforProgrammers ,StatisticalFormulasFor
Programmers ,CourseraDataAnalysis ,CourseraStatisticsOne
Programming:GoogleDevelopersRProgrammingLectures ,IntroductiontoR
DataCamp ,ScientificPythonLectures ,HowtoThinkLikeaComputer
Scientist

1.Acquire&ScrubData:
DFS&Databases:HadoopTutorialYahoo ,AMPCampBerkeleySpark
Introduction&Exercises ,IntrotoHadoop&MapReduceforBeginners
Udacity ,BigDataUniversity:BigData ,Alloutbeginner'sguidetoMongoDB
DataMunging:PredictiveAnalytics:DataPreparation ,DataWranglingin
Pandas ,AnalyzingandManipulatingDatawithPandas ,DataWrangler ,
OpenRefine

2.Filter&Minedata:
DataAnalysisinR:DatascienceinR ,CourseraComputingforDataAnalysisin
R
DataAnalysisinPython(numpy,scipy,pandas,scikit):GettingStartedWith
PythonForDataScience ,IntroductiontoNumPySciPyConf2015 ,Statistical
DataAnalysisinPython,Pandas (1stVideoBelow),SciPy2013Introductionto
SciKitLearnTutorialI&II (2nd&3rdVideoBelow)

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ExploratoryDataAnalysisExploratoryDataAnalysisinR ,ExploratoryData
AnalysisinPython ,UCBerkeley:DescriptiveStatistics ,BasicUnixShell
CommandsfortheDataScientist
DataMining,MachineLearning:

DataMiningMap ,CourseraMachineLearning ,StanfordStatistical

Learning ,MITx:TheAnalyticsEdge ,STATS202DataMining&Analysis ,
MiningMassiveDataSetsStanford ,LearningFromDataCalTech ,
CourseraWebIntelligence&BigData

3.Represent&RefineData:TableauTraining&Tutorials ,DatavisualisationinRwith
ggplot2andplyr ,PredictiveAnalytics:OverviewandDatavisualization ,FlowingData
Tutorials ,UCBerkeleyDataVisualization ,D3.jsTutorial
4.DomainKnowledge:Thisskillisdevelopedthroughexperienceworkinginanindustry.
Eachdatasetisdifferentandcomeswithcertainassumptionsandindustryknowledge.For
example,adataanalystspecializinginstockmarketdatawouldneedtimetodevelop
knowledgeinanalyzingtransactionaldataforrestaurants.
Combiningalltheabove:
DataLiteracyCourseIAP
CourseraIntroductiontoDataScience
CourseraDataScienceSpecialization
Books:
ElementsofStatisticalLearning
PythonMachineLearning
Applytheknowledge:
HarvardDataScienceCourseHomework
Kaggle:TheHomeofDataScience
AnalyzingBigDatawithTwitter
AnalyzingTwitterDatawithApacheHadoop

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FORMALWAY
Foramoreformalwayofbecomingadatascientistonecanlookintothispost
(reproducedbelow)Howtoacquirethe"EssentialSkillSet"?theFormalway.
TheEssentialSkillSetarethebasicfundamentalskillswhicheverydatascientistis
expectedtoknow.Traditionally,thesecanbeacquiredbyundertakingacomputerscience
degreeorastatisticsdegreefromaninstitution.TheStanfordComputerSciencecourses
&Statisticscourses provideagoodreferencelistofcoursestoundertake.Nowsomeof
thecoursesarerelevantwhilemanyothersarenot.ForexampleinComputerScience
whileonewoulddogoodtolearnaboutlargescaledistributeddatabases&algorithmsbut
thereisnoneedforlearningHCIandUX,orpureplaystorageandoperatingsystems,
networking,etc.Similarlysomestatisticscoursesfocustoomuchon,letssay,"oldschool
statistics"includingthousandsofwaysofhypothesistestinginsteadofmoreonmachine
learning(clustering,regression,classification,etc).Soboththestreamshavemanyniceto
havecoursesandmusthavecoursesforadatascientist(Idaretoclaimthatatpresentthe
percentageofmusthavecoursesseemstobegreaterinatraditionalStatisticsstreamthan
aComputerSciencestream).Assuchoneneedstopickthecourseswisely.
Oralternatively,onecanalsolookintoanumberofnewDataSciencecoursesthatsome
universitiesareofferingharpingonthepointsImentionedabove.Theycombinethemust
havecoursesfromboththetraditionalstatisticsandcomputerscienceprogramtoimpart
the4EssentialSkillsaswellasincludecoursestodeveloptheDifferentiatorSkillsin
students.TheMSinDataScienceatNYU &MSinAnalyticsatUSF aregoodexamples
ofsuchamalgamationoftherequisitecourses.Acompletelistofsuchcoursesispresented
hereCollegeswithDataScienceDegrees .
Thecorrectprogramobviouslydependsontheindividual'sgoal.OneoftherecentO'Rielly
publicationstitled'AnalyzingtheAnalyzers'doesaverygoodjobinaggregatingthe
variousdatascientistrolesinto4maincategoriesaspertheirskills.Anindividualmay
thereforeselectaprogramasperthecategoryofdatascientisthemostidentifieshimself
with,asshownbelow.
DataBusinesspeoplearetheproductandprofitfocuseddatascientists.
They'releaders,managers,andentrepreneurs,butwithatechnicalbent.A
commoneducationalpathisanengineeringdegreepairedwithanMBAorthe
newDataScienceprogramsasmentionedabove.
DataCreativesareeclecticjacksofalltrades,abletoworkwithabroadrange
ofdataandtools.Theymaythinkofthemselvesasartistsorhackers,andexcelat
visualizationandopensourcetechnologies.Theyareexpectedtohavea
engineeringdegree(mostlyinstatisticsoreconomics)butnotmuchinbusiness
skills.
DataDevelopersarefocusedonwritingsoftwaretodoanalytic,statistical,and
machinelearningtasks,ofteninproductionenvironments.Theyoftenhave
computersciencedegrees,andoftenworkwithsocalled"bigdata".
DataResearchersapplytheirscientifictraining,andthetoolsandtechniques
theylearnedinacademia,toorganizationaldata.TheymayhaveaMSorPhDsin
statistics,economic,physics,etc.,andtheircreativeapplicationsofmathematical
toolsyieldsvaluableinsightsandproducts.
Theskillsassociatedwiththe4maincategories,whichjustifytheabovementioned
programrecommendation,areasbelow:

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UpdatedNov8ViewUpvotes
Upvote 1k

Downvote Comments 13+

Share 35

AlexKamil
260.1kViewsUpvotedbyRyanFoxSquire,NeuroscientistTurnedDataScientistRobert
Chang,DataJanitor@Twitter|TaiwaneseAmerican|Statisticallyeducated|Aspiringsinger
JackGolding,AustralianDataEngineerMarcBodnick
AnswerfeaturedinForbes.
OriginallyAnswered:HowdoIbecomeadatascientist?

Strictlyspeaking,thereisnosuchthingas"datascience"(seeWhatisdatascience?).See
also:Vardi,Sciencehasonlytwolegs:http://portal.acm.org/ft_gateway...
HerearesomeresourcesI'vecollectedaboutworkingwithdata,Ihopeyoufindthem
useful(note:I'manundergradstudent,thisisnotanexpertopinioninanyway).
1)Learnaboutmatrixfactorizations
TaketheComputationalLinearAlgebracourse(itissometimescalledApplied
LinearAlgebraorMatrixComputationsorNumericalAnalysisorMatrixAnalysis
anditcanbeeitherCSorAppliedMathcourse).Matrixdecomposition
algorithmsarefundamentaltomanydataminingapplicationsandareusually
underrepresentedinastandard"machinelearning"curriculum.WithTBsofdata
traditionaltoolssuchasMatlabbecomenotsuitableforthejob,youcannotjust
runeig()onBigData.Distributedmatrixcomputationpackagessuchasthose
includedinApacheMahout[1]aretryingtofillthisvoidbutyouneedto
understandhowthenumericalgorithms/LAPACK/BLASroutines[2][3][4][5]
workinordertousethemproperly,adjustforspecialcases,buildyourownand
scalethemuptoterabytesofdataonaclusterofcommoditymachines.[6]
Usuallynumericscoursesarebuiltuponundergraduatealgebraandcalculusso
youshouldbegoodwithprerequisites.I'drecommendtheseresourcesforself
study/referencematerial:
SeeJackDongarra:Courses andWhataresomegoodresourcesforlearning
aboutnumericalanalysis?

2)Learnaboutdistributedcomputing
ItisimportanttolearnhowtoworkwithaLinuxclusterandhowtodesign
scalabledistributedalgorithmsifyouwanttoworkwithbigdata(Whythe
currentobsessionwithbigdata?).
CraysandConnectionMachinesofthepastcannowbereplacedwithfarmsof
cheapcloudinstances,thecomputingcostsdroppedtolessthan$1.80/GFlopin
2011vs$15Min1984:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FLOPS .
Ifyouwanttosqueezethemostoutofyour(rented)hardwareitisalsobecoming

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increasinglyimportanttobeabletoutilizethefullpowerofmulticore(see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moo... )
Note:thistopicisnotpartofastandardMachineLearningtrackbutyoucan
probablyfindcoursessuchasDistributedSystemsorParallelProgrammingin
yourCS/EEcatalog.Seedistributedcomputingresources,asystemscourseat
UIUC ,keyworks,andforstarters:IntroductiontoComputerNetworking .
Afterstudyingthebasicsofnetworkinganddistributedsystems,I'dfocuson
distributeddatabases,whichwillsoonbecomeubiquitouswiththedatadeluge
andhittingthelimitsofverticalscaling.Seekeyworks,researchtrendsandfor
starters:Introductiontorelationaldatabases andIntroductiontodistributed
databases(HBaseinAction) .

3)Learnaboutstatisticalanalysis
StartlearningstatisticsbycodingwithR:WhatareessentialreferencesforR?
andexperimentwithrealworlddata:WherecanIfindlargedatasetsopentothe
public?
CosmaShalizi compiledsomegreatmaterialsoncomputationalstatistics,check
outhislectureslides,andalsoWhataresomegoodresourcesforlearningabout
statisticalanalysis?
I'vefoundthatlearningstatisticsinaparticulardomain(e.g.NaturalLanguage
Processing)ismuchmoreenjoyablethantakingStats101.Mypersonal
recommendationisthecoursebyMichaelCollins atColumbia(alsoavailableon
Coursera ).
Youcanalsochooseafieldwheretheuseofquantitativestatisticsandcausality
principles[7]isinevitable,saymolecularbiology[8],orafunsubfieldsuchas
cancerresearch[9],orevennarrowerdomain,e.g.geneticanalysisoftumor
angiogenesis[10]andtryansweringimportantquestionsinthatparticularfield,
learningwhatyouneedintheprocess.

4)Learnaboutoptimization
ThissubjectisessentiallyprerequisitetounderstandingmanyMachineLearning
andSignalProcessingalgorithms,besidesbeingimportantinitsownright.
StartwithStephenP.Boyd 'svideolecturesandalsoWhataresomegood
resourcestolearnaboutoptimization?

5)Learnaboutmachinelearning
Beforeyougettothinkaboutalgorithmslookcarefullyatthedataandselect
featuresthathelpyoufiltersignalfromnoise.SeethistalkbyJeremyHoward:At
Kaggle,ItsaDisadvantageToKnowTooMuch
AlsoseeHowdoIlearnmachinelearning?andWhataresomeintroductory
resourcesforlearningaboutlargescalemachinelearning?Why?
Statisticsvs.machinelearning,fight!:http://brenocon.com/blog/2008/12...
Youcanstructureyourstudyprogramaccordingtoonlinecoursecatalogs
andcurriculaofMIT,Stanfordorothertopschools.Experimentwith
dataalot,hacksomecode,askquestions,talktogoodpeople,setupaweb
crawlerinyourgarage:TheAnatomyofaSearchEngine
Youcanjoinoneofthesestartupsandlearnbydoing:NaturalLanguage
Processing:Whatstartupsarehiringengineerswithstrengthsinmachine
learning/NLP?
Thealternative(andratherexpensive)optionistoenrollinaCS
program/MachineLearningtrackifyoupreferstudyinginaformal
setting.See:WhatmakesaMaster'sinComputerScience(MSCS)degreeworthit
andwhy?
Trytoavoidoverspecialization.Thebreadthfirstapproachoftenworksbestwhen
learninganewfieldanddealingwithhardproblems,seetheSecondvoyageof
HMSBeagle ontheadventuresofaningeniousyoungdataminer.

6)Learnaboutinformationretrieval

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MachinelearningIsnotascoolasitsounds:http://teddziuba.com/2008
/05/mac...
WhataresomegoodresourcestogetstartedwithInformationRetrieval?Why?

7)Learnaboutsignaldetectionandestimation
Thisisaclassictopicand"datascience"parexcellenceinmyopinion.
SomeofthesemethodswereusedtoguidetheApollomissionordetect
enemysubmarinesandarestillinactiveuseinmanyfields.Thisis
oftenpartoftheEEcurriculum.
GoodreferencesareRobertF.Stengel'lectureslidesonoptimalcontroland
estimation:RobStengel'sHomePage ,AlanV.Oppenheim'sSignalsand
Systems .andWhataresomegoodresourcesforlearningaboutsignal
estimationanddetection?AgoodtopictofocusonfirstisKalmanfilter ,widely
usedforTimeseries forecasting.
Talkingaboutdata,youprobablywanttoknowsomethingaboutinformation:its
transmission,compressionandfilteringsignalfromnoise.Themethods
developedbycommunicationengineersinthe60s(suchasViterbidecoder ,now
usedinaboutabillioncellphones)areapplicabletoasurprisingvarietyofdata
analysistasks,fromStatisticalmachinetranslation tounderstandingthe
organizationandfunctionofmolecularnetworks .Agoodresourceforstartersis
InformationTheoryandReliableCommunication:RobertG.Gallager:
9780471290483:Amazon.com:Books .AlsoWhataresomegoodresourcesfor
learningaboutinformationtheory?

8)Masteralgorithmsanddatastructures
Whatarethemostlearnerfriendlyresourcesforlearningaboutalgorithms?

9)Practice
GettingInShapeForTheSportOfDataScience
Carpentry:http://softwarecarpentry.org/
DataScience:Whataresomegoodtoyproblemsindatascience?
Tools:Whataresomeofthebestdataanalysistools?
WherecanIfindlargedatasetsopentothepublic?

IfyoudodecidetogoforaMastersdegree:
10)StudyEngineering
I'dgoforCSwithafocusoneitherIRorMachineLearningoracombinationofbothand
takesomesystemscoursesalongtheway.Asa"datascientist"youwillhavetowriteaton
ofcodeandprobablydevelopdistributedalgorithms/systemstoprocessmassiveamounts
ofdata.MSinStatisticswillteachyouhowtodomodelingandregressionanalysisetc,not
howtobuildsystems,Ithinkthelatterismoreurgentlyneededthesedaysastheoldtools
becomeobsoletewiththeavalancheofdata.Thereisashortageofengineerswhocanbuild
adataminingsystemfromthegroundup.Youcanpickupstatisticsfrombooksand
experimentswithR(seeitem3above)ortakesomestatisticsclassesasapartofyourCS
studies.
Goodluck.
[1]http://mahout.apache.org/
[2]http://www.netlib.org/lapack/
[3]http://www.netlib.org/eispack/
[4]http://math.nist.gov/javanumeric...
[5]http://www.netlib.org/scalapack/
[6]http://labs.google.com/papers/ma...
[7]Amazon.com:Causality:Models,ReasoningandInference(9780521895606):Judea
Pearl:Books
[8]IntroductiontoBiology ,MIT7.012videolectures
[9]Hanahan&Weinberg,TheHallmarksofCancer,NextGeneration:PageonWisc
[10]Thechaoticorganizationoftumorassociatedvasculature,fromTheBiologyof

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(9)HowcanIbecomeadatascientist?Quora

Cancer:RobertA.Weinberg:9780815342205:Amazon.com:Books ,p.562

UpdatedNov17,2013ViewUpvotes
Upvote 2.3k

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KatieKent,DirectorofEducationalOutcomes@GalvanizeEmployee#1@Zipfian
Academy
184kViewsUpvotedbyJasonZhang,DataScientistatQuora
KatieisaMostViewedWriterinJobsandCareersinDataScience.

BecomeaDataScientistbyDoingDataScience
Thebestwaytobecomeadatascientististolearnanddodatascience.Therearea
manyexcellentcoursesandtoolsavailableonlinethatcanhelpyougetthere.
HereisanincrediblelistofresourcescompiledbyJonathanDinu,CofounderofZipfian
Academy ,whichtrainsdatascientistsanddataengineersinSanFranciscoviaimmersive
programs,fellowships,andworkshops.
EDIT:I'vehadseveralrequestsforapermalinktothisanswer.Seehere:APracticalIntro
toDataSciencefromZipfianAcademy
EDIT2:Seealso:"HowtoBecomeaDataScientist"onSlideShare:
http://www.slideshare.net/ryanor...
Environment
Pythonisagreatprogramminglanguageofchoiceforaspiringdatascientistsduetoits
generalpurposeapplicability,agentle (orfirm )learningcurve,andperhapsthe
mostcompellingreasontherichecosystemofresources andlibraries activelyusedby
thescientificcommunity.
Development
Whenlearninganewlanguageinanewdomain,ithelpsimmenselytohaveaninteractive
environmenttoexploreandtoreceiveimmediatefeedback.IPythonprovidesaninteractive
REPLwhichalsoallowsyoutointegrateawidevarietyofframeworks(includingR )into
yourPythonprograms.
STATISTICS
Datascientistsarebetteratsoftwareengineeringthanstatisticiansandbetteratstatistics
thananysoftwareengineer.Assuch,statisticalinferenceunderpinsmuchofthetheory
behinddataanalysisandasolidfoundationofstatisticalmethodsandprobabilityservesas
asteppingstoneintotheworldofdatascience.
Courses
edX:IntroductiontoStatistics:DescriptiveStatistics :Abasicintroductorystatistics
course.
CourseraStatistics,MakingSenseofData :AappliedStatisticscoursethatteachesthe
completepipelineofstatisticalanalysis
MIT:StatisticalThinkingandDataAnalysis :Introductiontoprobability,sampling,
regression,commondistributions,andinference.

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WhileRisthedefactostandardforperformingstatisticalanalysis,ithasquiteahigh
learningcurveandthereareotherareasofdatascienceforwhichitisnotwellsuited.To
avoidlearninganewlanguageforaspecificproblemdomain,werecommendtryingto
performtheexercisesofthesecourseswithPythonanditsnumerousstatisticallibraries.
YouwillfindthatmuchofthefunctionalityofRcanbereplicatedwithNumPy ,
@SciPy ,@Matplotlib ,and@PythonDataAnalysisLibrary
Books
Wellwrittenbookscanbeagreatreference(andsupplement)tothesecourses,andalso
provideamoreindependentlearningexperience.Thesemaybeusefulifyoualreadyhave
someknowledgeofthesubjectorjustneedtofillinsomegapsinyourunderstanding:
O'ReillyThinkStats :AnIntroductiontoProbabilityandStatisticsforPython
programmers
IntroductiontoProbability :TextbookforBerkeleysStats134class,anintroductory
treatmentofprobabilitywithcomplementaryexercises.
BerkeleyLectureNotes,IntroductiontoProbability :Compiledlecturenotesofabove
textbook,completewithexercises.
OpenIntro :Statistics:Introductorytextbookwithsupplementaryexercisesandlabsin
anonlineportal.
ThinkBayes :AnsimpleintroductiontoBayesianStatisticswithPythoncodeexamples.
MACHINELEARNING/ALGORITHMS
AsolidbaseofComputerScienceandalgorithmsisessentialforanaspiringdatascientist.
Luckilythereareawealthofgreatresourcesonline,andmachinelearningisoneofthe
morelucrative(andadvanced)skillsofadatascientist.
Courses
CourseraMachineLearning :Stanfordsfamousmachinelearningcoursetaughtby
AndrewNg.
Coursera:ComputationalMethodsforDataAnalysis :Statisticalmethodsanddata
analysisappliedtophysical,engineering,andbiologicalsciences.
MITDataMining :Anintroductiontothetechniquesofdataminingandhowtoapply
ML...(more)
Upvote 1.2k

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PeterSkomoroch,Sr.DataScientist@LinkedIn
94.7kViewsUpvotedbyJasonZhang,DataScientistatQuoraMarcBodnick1otheryou
follow
OriginallyAnswered:HowdoIbecomeadatascientist?

Ifyouhavethetimetotakecourses,giveitashot.
1)Trytotakesomeoftheundergradmathcoursesyoumissed.LinearAlgebra,Advanced
Calculus,Diff.Eq.,Probability,Statisticsarethemostimportant.Afterthat,takesome
MachineLearningcourses.ReadafewoftheleadingMLtextbooksandkeepupwith
journalstogetagoodsenseofthefield.
2)Readuponwhatthetopdatacompaniesaredoing.After1or2machinelearning
coursesyoushouldhaveenoughbackgroundtofollowmostoftheacademicpapers.
Implementsomeofthesealgorithmsonrealdata.
3)Ifyouareworkingwithlargedatasets,getfamiliarwiththelatesttechniques&tools
(Hadoop,NoSQL,Spark,etc.)byputtingthemintopracticeatwork(oroutsideofwork).
4)Abigpartofdatascienceontheproductdevelopmentsideisessentiallysoftware
engineering,andbeingabletocreate,modifyandimplementalgorithms.AsWilliamChen
mentioned,manydatascientistsknowPython,R,scikitslearnetc.,butthatismostlyfor
analysisorprototyping.Ifyouneedtoimplementanythingatscaleorwithinproduction

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systemsyouwilllikelyneedtoknowhowtowritecodeinsomethinglikeJavaorC++.
CheckoutthebooktheAmazon.com:ThePragmaticProgrammer:FromJourneymanto
Master(9780201616224):AndrewHunt,DavidThomas:Books andtheSoftware
Carpentry courseifyouarecomingtosoftwaredevelopmentfromasciencebackground.
IdidaTCTVinterviewrecentlywithSemilShahwherewewentintomoredepthonhowto
becomeadatascientist:
*http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/06...
UpdatedApr10,2014ViewUpvotes
Upvote 504

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PathanKarimkhan,Datascienceexcitesme!
28.7kViewsUpvotedbyRobertChang,DataJanitor@Twitter|TaiwaneseAmerican|
Statisticallyeducated|Aspiringsinger
Pathanhas70+answersinBigData.

Beingdatascientistrequiresasolidfoundationtypicallyincomputerscienceand
applications,modeling,statistics,analyticsandmath.
Whatsetsthedatascientistapartisstrongbusinessacumen,coupledwiththeabilityto
communicatefindingstobothbusinessandITleadersinawaythatcaninfluencehowan
organizationapproachesabusinesschallenge.Gooddatascientistswillnotjustaddress
businessproblems,theywillpicktherightproblemsthathavethemostvaluetothe
organization.
AlsoIbelieveindepthknowledgeinDatascience,MachinelearningandNLPwillhelpto
solvegroundtotoplevelissues.45yearsofdevelopmentexperiencecangivesuch
acumenship.

IntroductiontoCSCourse
Notes:IntroductiontoComputerScienceCoursethatprovidesinstructionson
coding.
OnlineResources:
UdacityintrotoCScourse ,
CourseraComputerScience101

Codeinatleastoneobjectorientedprogramminglanguage:C++,
Java,orPython
BeginnerOnlineResources:
CourseraLearntoProgram:TheFundamentals ,
MITIntrotoProgramminginJava ,
Google'sPythonClass ,
CourseraIntroductiontoPython ,
PythonOpenSourceEBook
IntermediateOnlineResources:
Udacity'sDesignofComputerPrograms ,
CourseraLearntoProgram:CraftingQualityCode ,
CourseraProgrammingLanguages ,
BrownUniversityIntroductiontoProgrammingLanguages
LearnotherProgrammingLanguages
Notes:AddtoyourrepertoireJavaScript,CSS,HTML,Ruby,PHP,C,Perl,
Shell.Lisp,Scheme.
OnlineResources:w3school.comHTMLTutorial ,Learntocode
TestYourCode
Notes:Learnhowtocatchbugs,createtests,andbreakyoursoftware
OnlineResources:UdacitySoftwareTestingMethods ,UdacitySoftware
Debugging
Developlogicalreasoningandknowledgeofdiscretemath
OnlineResources:
MITMathematicsforComputerScience ,

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CourseraIntroductiontoLogic,
CourseraLinearandDiscreteOptimization ,
CourseraProbabilisticGraphicalModels,
CourseraGameTheory .
DevelopstrongunderstandingofAlgorithmsandDataStructures
Notes:Learnaboutfundamentaldatatypes(stack,queues,andbags),sorting
algorithms(quicksort,mergesort,heapsort),anddatastructures(binarysearch
trees,redblacktrees,hashtables),BigO.
OnlineResources:
MITIntroductiontoAlgorithms ,
CourseraIntroductiontoAlgorithmsPart1 &Part2 ,
WikipediaListofAlgorithms ,
WikipediaListofDataStructures ,
Book:TheAlgorithmDesignManual
Developastrongknowledgeofoperatingsystems
OnlineResources:UCBerkeleyComputerScience162 ...
(more)
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