Nate Silver to would-be data scientists: Don’t sweat the degree, do the work

Re:Nate Silver to would-be data scientists: Don’t sweat the ... by carlob on Tuesday October 01, 2013 @09:24AM (#6475908)

There is something that somewhat irks me about the whole domain of data science. I still can't quite put my finger on it, but I think it's a mixture of lack of rigor, handwaving arguments.

Maybe if it were called data journalism, or data storytelling rather than science I would somewhat lower my expectations and enjoy it more fully, but in my experience doing science and doing data science are not really close.

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Re:Nate Silver to would-be data scientists: Don’t sweat the ... by ig1 on Tuesday October 01, 2013 @09:31AM (#6475952)

Data science is about building testable models, which fundamentally is what science is about.

What probably makes you uncomfortable is that Data Science (unlike most scientific fields) doesn't have a requirement for the models to make intuitive sense to humans.

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Re:Nate Silver to would-be data scientists: Don’t sweat the ... by jonahx on Tuesday October 01, 2013 @09:31AM (#6475948)

I think you could make the same argument about computer science, especially relating it to the actual practice of professional programming, which resembles pop culture more than science.

And while both fields have mathematical underpinnings, the foundations of data science -- probability and statistics -- have deeper roots and a longer history.

I guess I'm saying you shouldn't impugn the field itself because of its popular practice.

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Re:Nate Silver to would-be data scientists: Don’t sweat the ... by carlob on Tuesday October 01, 2013 @10:33AM (#6476412)

I don't think what most programmers do is computer science, more like software engineering.

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Re:Nate Silver to would-be data scientists: Don’t sweat the ... by dllthomas on Tuesday October 01, 2013 @12:02PM (#6477005)

"more like", yes...

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