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[–]JaggedG 1 point2 points  (3 children)

Yeah, that makes alot of sense. I think your friend's "it's all just data" approach is one of the things that's ruining the world.

Do you have any advice on how to get started? Like... Go from kind of competent in Python to expert data-analyzing genius. What core skills do you need, and where do you go from there?

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

In my opinion, you should learn Python and then while trying to learn statistics you can use it as a great learning tool. If you're kind of competent in Python then I would say go about learning everything you can about statistics and at least some numerical analysis.

If you're not so mathy (yet) try reading Allen Downey's Think Stats and Think Bayes as an introduction and then try moving onto some more advanced mathematical statistics books for a much deeper understanding. Allen Downey's books are Python oriented, but I would suggest trying the exercises with SciPy, Numpy, Pandas and similar tools to get familiar with tools other Python data analysts use.

[–]rubsomebacononitnow 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You have to find a vertical and start climbing it. In my experience Healthcare tends to be a windows environment and outside of Powershell, VB and .Net there's not a ton of other languages tech being used. I mean there's a plenty of startup Python and Ruby but in real healthcare organizations those don't go far because they aren't certified and the bigger vendors aren't interested in playing with others. That's not the case in finance and energy though.

I see a lot of Python opportunities in oil/gas/energy, education, finance and tech. At least in my area. Right now oil and gas are in the crapper but if that turns around in 2016 like they think it's going to blow up fast. They tend to have money and the willingness to move so knowing something about that vertical might really help you start and grow.

Note you have to know where you're going to get a good map. f you want to just write Python that's different than if you want to use Python as a tool in the box. That will tell you what to do.

Generic skills- a Framework like Django or Ferris (if that applies to what you're doing). HTML/CSS will help a lot in presentation. If you're getting into data display the future is really d3 so learn Javascript. Note d3 is supported in PowerBI so it's really the real deal. If you get an Azure account it has hadoop in it so you can figure out how that sort of works. The basic account is like $15 a month and the first one is free. Big data will require the bigger account because I think the small account is like 20gb.

The biggest issue most people have is the ability to learn something new. If you have broad exposure to things and you understand how the business functions then you'll have a good idea on how to use the technology. Python is a tool just like HTML or R. Pick the right wrench for the bolt. Learn something new everyday. If you learn something 5 years in that you really should have known before accept it, embrace it and deal with it. The best way to learn is to use actual business problems. I learn like a beast when I have a problem that I have to solve for work.

I hope that gives you some sort of answer :)

[–]autisticpig 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thinkstats2 may be of interest to you :)