Drinking from the firehose.

This blog will serve as a journal of my venture into the field of data science — I will write about data science concepts I learn and projects that I complete, as well as the heartbreaks, loneliness, and frustration along the way.

Sometimes it just doesn’t work, right, Spiderman!?

I wanted to begin with what draws me to this field. I took several career placement and personality tests and they pointed to the same general areas of a career that has stability, objectivity, and analytical aspects. As one test puts it:

…seeks structure, clearly defined rules, and respect for authority and hierarchy…

A few weeks into learning data science at Flatiron School, I can tell you there is plenty of structure in a pandas DataFrame, clear (sometimes, frustratingly unyielding) rules in programming Python, and I have the utmost respect for the authority that certain Python libraries like numpy and matplotlib have over my ability to program anything meaningful.

I’ve been told going through a Data Science bootcamp is like trying to drink water from a firehouse.

I know how you feel, kid. Imagine if it was a firehose.

I think the kid’s expression tells you what kind of experience that is. Having gone through a bootcamp several years ago for web development, here is an interesting graphic I’ve compiled from different resources:

please forgive the above typos: unconscious incompetence, conscious incompetence, conscious competence, and unconscious competence.. instead, try to say it three times, fast.

These are two different pictures about the emotional state you’re in based on where you are in the process of learning something.

The beginning is Stage 1, in which the future is being painted on a dazzling canvas by flying unicorns with gold brushes in their mouths.

When you realize how much you want to (and need to) learn or take on, you suddenly hit this wall of pessimism and self-doubt that comes in Stage 2. It can be very despairing as you realize how much you don’t know — heck, there are subject matters you don’t even know you don’t know.

We’re wired to flee from pain and shield ourselves from it. But the most successful people are the ones who force themselves to stay in that space and be comfortable with being uncomfortable. Welcome to Stage 3, when concepts start to stick and you’re not constantly switching to the solutions branch on GitHub.

What happens after is we continue to push through to informed optimism and we learn how to achieve real progress and success in our goals in Stage 4.

Until then, you’re welcome to join me in this journey of drinking from the firehouse.