Why Data Science?
A little backstory here… Back in July of 2020, I enrolled in the full time Data Science bootcamp at Flatiron School after suddenly finding myself without employment and without direction in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. This was a blog I wrote very early on in the program and it reeks of the blind enthusiasm I had upon starting the Data Science bootcamp. This enthusiasm would soon turn to terror, dread, stress, and sleepless nights in the early goings. Once I was able to get into the swing of things, my time at Flatiron School proved to be one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. That being said, I think this is the perfect place to start off my new blog here on Medium. Without further ado…
My journey to data science can definitely be described as unorthodox. I’ve worn a lot of different hats in my 34 years of life. I’ve been a waiter, bartender, unenthusiastic retail employee, full time musician, tour manager, concert promoter, event producer, marketing & brand activator, and for a very brief period, a birthday clown. With that kind of background, why data science and why now?
I first began to to tell people that I was planning to start this journey with Flatiron School in late May of 2020. “Ladies and gentleman”, I addressed my adoring audience, “I’ve decided that I’m going to become a Data Scientist!” Like with any other big, exciting life announcement, I pretty much expected my friends and family to congratulate me, perhaps even cheer or jump up and down or praise me for my genius. Instead, all I seemed to receive was “…what?” and “…why?” So much for my triumphant moment.
A little backstory on me… I started my adult life in the music industry as a drummer in an alternative rock band (no, I’m positive you haven’t heard of us). During this time, I was lucky enough to be able to build a small, but dedicated fanbase, release a few albums on labels, see most of the US and some of the world on tour, and share the stages with some of the biggest bands around. I was always pretty good with math so any responsibility that dealt with numbers was delegated to me. These tasks would include accounting, handling merchandise inventory, tracking sales, and maintaining social media/mailing lists. Eventually, I started to notice certain trends. One t-shirt seemed to sell better in one city than another. We had a surprising amount of album sales in one region and surprisingly few in another. I decided it would be beneficial to start tracking all sorts of information in a crude system of excel spreadsheets to see if I could find any other trends. I started taking notes on where I was shipping merchandise, where album sales were coming from, and keeping track of ticket sales to determine what geographical areas we were crushing and which spots needed work. If only there was a term for what I was doing…
A few years down the line, the whole “band” thing started to run it’s course and I needed to figure out what I was going to do as a career, now that music seemed like it wasn’t going to pan out long term. My years of playing shows gave me enough experience to do one thing…put on shows. After a while, I was able to transition this into producing events and festivals, and eventually work in the business world doing corporate events and live brand activation. I had the pleasure of working on campaigns with major tech companies like Lyft, Netflix, Upwork, and Upfluence. I found the nuts and bolts “under the hood” of each tech company to be fascinating and I was in a position where I was able to ask questions. How does Netflix know what I want to watch next? How is Waze offering me a coupon for that restaurant I’m about to drive past? Why did Lyft pick these super specific, and often bizarre, markets to do activation events? The answer to all of these began with the same phrase: “Well, when we analyze the data…”
Cut to March of 2020. The spread of the COVID-19 pandemic was in full swing and my career…well…wasn’t. Suddenly, having an occupation that almost entirely deals with large crowds in public spaces became something that wasn’t just not happening…in many cases it was illegal. My company lost the next 14 months of contracts in a matter of days and I was left with plenty of time for personal reflection. Was my industry ever coming back? Did I even care if it did? Was I ready to move on to a new phase, a new adventure? What was all that data stuff again?
So, to make long story slightly less long, I should finally get around to answering the question: “why data science?” The logical answer is that it’s an emerging field with plenty of opportunity. The fun answer is that apparently I’ve been “data adjacent” for a really long time. There’s little debate that the work being done with data is already shaping our future. I’ve even recently read that data has now surpassed oil as the most valuable commodity on the planet. While my previous career was fulfilling in it’s own ways, I want to be able to say that what I do is part of building our collective future, even in just some small way. The concept of being able to collect enough relevant data and then be able to predict the future from my laptop is mind-blowing. It’s like having the keys to a flux-capacitor adorned Delorean. I just need to learn how to drive it.
