The Data Don’t Always Say What You Want to Hear: The Role of Cognitive Bias in Data Analysis

“If there’s something you really want to believe, that’s what you should question the most.” Penn Jillette It was 6th grade. I was sitting in the back of a (boring) language arts class when the boy seated next to me – a boy that I’d had a crush on for the entire semester – turned

Should I Stay or Should I Go Now? Using A/B Testing to Assess Proposed Change

“If you never try, you’ll never know.” The Situation The developer of a phone-based game is concerned about the retention rate of customers who download the game after they saw this graphic in a company presentation. The developer was especially concerned about the customers that churned after the first day. This indicated that they were

What a Difference a Year Can Make

“If you want to experience significant progress toward your goal, you need to be intentional about the work you’re doing every day.” Anonymous I keep a daily 5-year spiral journal, where each day I am able to see my entries on that same day for the past few years. After a frustrating afternoon a few weeks

Who Buys the Wine? Using Clustering for Market Segmentation

“A satisfied customer is the best business strategy of all. “ Michael LeBoeuf In order for retailers to maximize customer satisfaction, they first have to understand those customers. Since companies may have thousands, hundreds of thousands or even millions of customers, that often comes down to dividing customers into related groups and then working to

Not So Mellow Mushrooms: A Classification Task

On my way home, I noticed a few mushrooms that had sprung up after the rain. They were perfect and intact because everyone knew they were poisonous. — Paulo Coelho With all of the rain lately, I’ve noticed quite a few mushrooms on my daily walks. Some are tall , balancing caps on top of slender

A Love Letter to Functions

“Programming isn’t about what you know; it’s about what you can figure out.”  – Chris Pine It wasn’t love at first sight. When I was first introduced to functions, they seemed perfectly fine, but a little bland. Sort of like that person that your grandmother would be happy for you to bring home – steady, predictable

Do Cloudy Countries Produce More Heavy Metal Music?

Practice With Web Scraping and Data Manipulation Using Python, Pandas and BeautifulSoup “Your curiosity is your growth point. Always.” — Danielle LaPorte It’s been raining quite a bit in Atlanta these past few weeks and I’ve noticed that as the skies become more overcast, my playlist veers heavier and heavier. Which led me to wonder –

Combating Imposter Syndrome

It’s not who you are that holds you back, it’s who you think you’re not. Hanoch McCarty On day 4 of data science bootcamp, I had a bit of a panic attack when I woke up with the overwhelming feeling of not feeling prepared for the job interview process. On day 4. Even while feeling

Reflections From the First Day of Data Science Bootcamp

My brain is experiencing technical difficulties. Please stand by. After two years of making preparations, today is (finally!) my official first day of data science bootcamp. And for those of you considering doing something similar or those of you thinking that I’m bonkers for leaving a known thing, I know what you’re thinking: So, how

Why I Decided to Learn Data Science

“The goal is to turn data into information, and information into insight.” – Carly Fiorina I didn’t find data science. Data science found me. After 18 years of teaching math, I knew that I needed a change. I was restless and unchallenged even while I was winning awards and creating programs. Looking for my next move, I kept browsing job descriptions