Import Taylor As Your_Favorite_Data_Scientist

Hello there 👋🏽, I’m Taylor, and this is the beginning of my journey to becoming a data scientist. For most of my life, I’ve been “tech adjacent”: I majored in math, took a few programming classes in school, and worked as a business analyst. Now, I’m ready to get in the game. Soon, this publication will be filled with reviews on data science courses, outlines of new programming methods and frameworks, and summaries of my upcoming projects.

“Yes I know I’ve learned Python fundamentals 12 times, but maybe if I take ONE more class I can call myself a data scientist.”

I’ve probably tried every program out there: CodeAcademy, DataCamp, DataQuest, Treehouse, FreeCodeCamp, Udemy, YouTube, Medium posts, documentation walkthroughs, you name it. And for the longest I thought the fact that I didn’t study engineering in school or go to a fancy bootcamp was holding me back. But you know what the real culprit is? It’s my imposter syndrome. Because there are so many packages, frameworks, languages, etc. out there, it’s easy to think that “I don’t know enough”. It’s this thinking that has caused me to be stuck in this same cycle for the past 2 years:

1. Learn something cool
2. Start working on a project using this cool new thing I learned
3. Realize that I don’t know how to do some small task
4. Find a program, video, or class teaching what I don’t know
5. Think to myself, “Maybe I need to start at the beginning so I can make sure I know EVERYTHING”
6. Repeat

This is exhausting (and very expensive). Let’s change that.

“Alright, this is the last time that I say this is the last time.”

So here I am now, on Day 41 of my #100DaysOfCode challenge. Do I know what the end result is going to be? Not at all. However, now I’m changing my mindset from being a “learner” to being a “doer”. It all starts with this notepad full of data science projects that I’m going to start knocking out. Maybe this journey will lead me to being a full-fledged data scientist, or perhaps a data strategy consultant, or even an industry’s go-to artificial intelligence expert. Regardless, I’m taking this first step, and I’m excited to see where this takes me.

P.S. Yes, I know the title of this post has an alias that’s longer than the package name, just roll with it for now.

• What I’m reading: You are Not So Smart by David McRaney
• Last podcast I listened to: Techish
• My current motto: “You are exactly where you need to be”