Think Like a Data Scientist

Summary

Think Like a Data Scientist presents a step-by-step approach to data science, combining analytic, programming, and business perspectives into easy-to-digest techniques and thought processes for solving real world data-centric problems.

About the Technology

Data collected from customers, scientific measurements, IoT sensors, and so on is valuable only if you understand it. Data scientists revel in the interesting and rewarding challenge of observing, exploring, analyzing, and interpreting this data. Getting started with data science means more than mastering analytic tools and techniques, however; the real magic happens when you begin to think like a data scientist. This book will get you there.

About the Book

Think Like a Data Scientist teaches you a step-by-step approach to solving real-world data-centric problems. By breaking down carefully crafted examples, you’ll learn to combine analytic, programming, and business perspectives into a repeatable process for extracting real knowledge from data. As you read, you’ll discover (or remember) valuable statistical techniques and explore powerful data science software. More importantly, you’ll put this knowledge together using a structured process for data science. When you’ve finished, you’ll have a strong foundation for a lifetime of data science learning and practice.

What’s Inside

• The data science process, step-by-step
• How to anticipate problems
• Dealing with uncertainty
• Best practices in software and scientific thinking

About the Reader

Readers need beginner programming skills and knowledge of basic statistics.

Table of Contents

PART 1 PREPARING AND GATHERING DATA AND KNOWLEDGE

1 ■ Philosophies of data science

2 ■ Setting goals by asking good questions

3 ■ Data all around us: the virtual wilderness

4 ■ Data wrangling: from capture to domestication

5 ■ Data assessment: poking and prodding

PART 2 BUILDING A PRODUCT WITH SOFTWARE AND STATISTICS

6 ■ Developing a plan

7 ■ Statistics and modeling: concepts and foundations

8 ■ Software: statistics in action

9 ■ Supplementary software: bigger, faster, more efficient

10 ■ Plan execution: putting it all together

PART 3 FINISHING OFF THE PRODUCT AND WRAPPING UP

11 ■ Delivering a product

12 ■ After product delivery: problems and revisions

13 ■ Wrapping up: putting the project away

About the Author

Brian Godsey has worked in software, academia, finance, and defense and has launched several data-centric start-ups.