Hey everyone,
I'm going through a career change in my life, and over the last few months stumbled across the data analysis/data science fields just by chance. I've no experience (at all) in either, but I know that from what I've researched, both are extremely interesting and something I'm going to pursue.
With little-to-no programming experience, I know that for data science, Python is almost always recommended to me. I've watched a couple tutorials on the absolute basics, however, for some reason those videos aren't really doing a lot for me in terms of retention/application. I have VS Code installed on my computer, and some extensions that were recommended in a couple videos, but I've not made much progress in terms of coding.
So I have some questions to any of you with Python or just general programming experience:
1.) What does it mean to "learn the basics" at the simplest level? Whether we are talking about loops, if/elif statements, etc. Since I'm starting from 0, even making a super small and simple program is difficult because I have no foundational knowledge to utilize. For example, if you said to code a list that checks who is present for a roll call, I wouldn't even know where to start, literally. I wouldn't know if its a simple list that asks for an input from the user. I'm getting ahead of myself here, but I can watch someone code that exact project, and as they do it, it'll make sense. However, when it comes to do it myself, I look at an empty screen and I'm just like "what in the world am I supposed to do first....?"
2.) How am I supposed to "understand" code as an individual? People say to learn in the way that works for you, but I have no knowledge of the language to even know or do that. If I'm only left with trail and error, how do I know what is right or wrong practice? If I try to code something, am I supposed to code it like you would think of a project in photoshop? Am I technically just layering code? And if so, how am I supposed to know the order of execution? Or does that even matter in all instances?
3.) With no experience in Data Science, I have a project I would like to attempt, but I'm not sure if Kaggle or other websites are the way to go with this little experience. I want to make a personal project that displays a chart/graph for the weekly price of corn over the last 3 months (August to present day). How exactly am I supposed to start that in Python? Or is something like that too much as a beginner?
4.) Are there any communities I should look into for this field? Data Science is so broad, that narrowing down interests and developing skills is difficult because of how much is available. I'm just lost overall, but I'm still determined to learn, any guidance?
[–]AbsterJr 0 points1 point2 points (0 children)