Introduction: What Is Data Science? - Doing Data Science - page 8

• Visualization (graphs, tools, etc.)
But wait, is data science just a bag of tricks? Or is it the logical extension
of other fields like statistics and machine learning?
For one argument, see Cosma Shalizi's posts here and here , and Cathy's
posts here and here , which constitute an ongoing discussion of the
difference between a statistician and a data scientist. Cosma basically
argues that any statistics department worth its salt does all the stuff in
the descriptions of data science that he sees, and therefore data science
is just a rebranding and unwelcome takeover of statistics.
For a slightly different perspective, see ASA President Nancy Geller's
2011 Amstat News article, “Don't shun the 'S' word” , in which she
defends statistics:
We need to tell people that Statisticians are the ones who make sense
of the data deluge occurring in science, engineering, and medicine;
that statistics provides methods for data analysis in all fields, from art
history to zoology; that it is exciting to be a Statistician in the 21st
century because of the many challenges brought about by the data
explosion in all of these fields.
Though we get her point—the phrase “art history to zoology” is sup‐
posed to represent the concept of A to Z—she's kind of shooting herself
in the foot with these examples because they don't correspond to the
high-tech world where much of the data explosion is coming from.
Much of the development of the field is happening in industry, not
academia. That is, there are people with the job title data scientist in
companies, but no professors of data science in academia. (Though
this may be changing.)
Not long ago, DJ Patil described how he and Jeff Hammerbacher —
then at LinkedIn and Facebook, respectively—coined the term “data
scientist” in 2008. So that is when “data scientist” emerged as a job title.
(Wikipedia finally gained an entry on data science in 2012.)
It makes sense to us that once the skill set required to thrive at Google
—working with a team on problems that required a hybrid skill set of
stats and computer science paired with personal characteristics in‐
cluding curiosity and persistence—spread to other Silicon Valley tech
companies, it required a new job title. Once it became a pattern, it
deserved a name. And once it got a name, everyone and their mother
wanted to be one. It got even worse when Harvard Business Review
declared data scientist to be the “Sexiest Job of the 21st Century” .