Database Reference
In-Depth Information
Gutierrez:
How do you develop a taste for good work, good people, and
good tutorials?
Smith:
It comes from experience and having a high bullshit radar. I find that
it's very easy to tell the difference between people that actually are doing work
and those that aren't. Even if it is something simple, it is usually very easy to tell.
I think those are the best examples of what people are doing that really inspire
me. You can also almost always disambiguate between people who are just using
a whole bunch of Twitter hashtags and just trying to push their own agenda.
It's a lot of experience and looking at what they're doing—understanding if it's
feasible or what assumptions they're making, seeing if those are correct or not.
When I first got into data science, there was the whole problem of how much
domain experience you need to have. I think you need some, and the more
intuition you have, the better. Just common sense and a little thought is usually
a good barrier for what's good and what's bad.
Gutierrez:
If you were starting out as a new data scientist today, what would
be helpful for you to really understand?
Smith:
If someone is just starting out in data science, the most important
thing to understand is that it's okay to ask people questions. I also think humil-
ity is very important. You've got to make sure that you're not tied up in what
you're doing. You can always make changes and start over. Being able to scrap
code, I think, is really hard when you're starting out, but the most important
thing is to just do something.
Even if you don't have a job in data science, you can still explore data sets in
your downtime and can come up with questions to ask the data. In my per-
sonal time, I've played around with Reddit data. I asked myself, “What can I
explore about Reddit with the tools that I have or don't have?” This is great
because once you've started, you can see how other people have approached
the same problem. Just use your gut and start reading other people's articles
and be like, “I can use this technique in my approach.” Start out very slowly
and move slowly. I tried reading a lot when I started, but I think that's not as
helpful until you've actually played around with code and with data to under-
stand how it actually works, how it moves. When people present it in topics,
it's all nice and pretty. In real life, it's really not.
I think trying a lot of different things is also very important. I don't think I'd
ever thought that I would be here. I also have no idea where I'll be in five years.
But maybe that's how I learn, by doing a bit of everything across many different
disciplines to try to understand what fits me best.
Gutierrez:
What projects have you worked on outside of work?
Smith:
I have a lot of projects I've done and even more projects I want to do.
As I said before, I've played around with different parts of Reddit's data. I did a
project around Reddit headlines to see if we could find any patterns for how
