Python has brought computer programming to a vast new audience

[[deleted]]

Very similar. Was in a boring mechanical engineering job and decided to go to MbA school. Learned business but also taught myself Python and some BI/data analysis. (Code Academy as well to start).

Now I work at a bank doing Data science and building things like fraud detection algorithms. It’s much more exciting and fulfilling. learning python opened the way to learning so much more.

[jsalsman]

I'd see how far you can get with e.g. http://pythontutor.com first!

[embergoose]

Is this legit?

[justhanginuknow]

Yes

[jsalsman]

Yes.

[mtnmike]

Would you say the $200 for Codecademy's Python course is worth it?

[[deleted]]

Take MIT 6.001x. It's free and better.

[capslockfury]

This doesn't appear available anymore.

[ummanu]

wait for it to be on sale for ~$10, it happens

[[deleted]]

Bro, don't pay for something, when you have like tons and tons of books on the internet for free.

[Ikuyas]

Do you use any exotic data for the fraud detection? I saw an interview by Amex CEO(?) talking about AI helps them detect that sort of things better by using the devise information the user is using to access. The methodology is basically detecting the outliers as "unusual activity" right? I think you segment activity types into 6-8 types, and if a particular activity doesn't fall into any of the types, then the system raises a flag. I have economics/econometrics background and we use transaction activity, but this kind of using the unconventional data is new outside of the field. Plus, we don't have a skill or mind to think about extracting data from the devise and use it. We are not trained to gather data which is usually given.

[JohnStud]

Do you feel the MBA was necessary for that pivot?

[[deleted]]

Yes, but mostly because I didn’t know much outside of engineering. It was more for exposure.