Can time travel make you a better data scientist?
Well, no. Because we haven’t figure it out yet — come on science! How hard can it be? Flux capacitor + banana skin = time travel. Sorted.
But perhaps make believe time travel will help? I am going to take my trusty DeLorean back to 2004 when I started my first job as a research assistant. My mission is to pass on what I’ve learned along the way to my younger self, so that when I come back to the future I will be Cassie Kozyrkov. Now I’m not talking about identity theft exactly. Well, I am I guess. Sorry Cassie.
Let’s dial it back. When I come back to the future I will have mad data science insights, crazy good communication and an analogy for every situation faced by every data scientist ever. Like I always say, it’s important to set realistic goals. Now, to 2004!
As I arrive, my flux capacitor is behaving erratically. After some doing some quick quantum physics in my head, I calculate I only have 2 minutes to return before I will be stuck in the past forever. What is the one thing I share with this fresh faced, naive youth before me?
See the data through your own eyes.
As data scientists, statisticians, data analysts and ML engineers, we are constantly doing things for other people.
Can you use data magic to make this experiment I’ve already completed be legitimate and make the really interesting discovery I set out to find a real thing? No.
Can you look at this business forecast and tell me why we didn’t make the $1M EBITDA we forecast? No. Can you fix it so we do make the $1M EBITDA we wanted in the first place? No.
Can you predict how long it will take me to get a new job using nothing but my out of date resume? No.
We are asked and expected to look at data through someone else’s lens. We become their data surrogate as we feed back to them what they want to hear. Then we receive our next data mission, going round and round in circles until we prove they were right all along. Yeah. No. Stop doing that.
We exist as a check against ego, hubris and hyperbole. We are that one person who will tell you what you have believed your entire career is bogus.
Why? Because its our job — we are on a quest for truth.You won’t like us the first time we say “I’m sorry, you were wrong”. But if you stick with us, if you take the time to understand why we exist, we will become your best friend. Being told you are wrong is valuable. It is a step on the path to new knowledge.
The flux capacitor is fragmenting the time-space continuum! I have one more minute —
Hang on, a quest for truth? Really?
Good point. And thank you for pulling me up on that. Truth is elusive.
The best we can do is make it our mission to prove ourselves wrong.
If we fail at that, then we might be onto something.
That’s honestly the best you can do?
Yep. And most of the time we can’t even do that. Most of the time you are wrong. Most of the time I am wrong. Get comfortable knowing very little. Get cozy with the idea that what you “know” is an assumption, or a hypothesis you need to test.
That sounds like a terrible, bleak, depressing existence! I don’t like you future me, you’re a a real downer. Get back to the future already and leave me to live in the illusion that I can throw some numbers at a mainframe (its 2004 remember) and solve all the world’s problems.
No! if you would just listen! You could become a famous Linkedin influencer! You could work at google! …
Past me closes the door, punches the flux capacitor and 2004 disappears with a distinct pop.
Dang it! Another fool-proof plan fails. I’m still the same current future me. Well back to the drawing board I guess. The quest for truth goes on.
