Agile Data Science 2.0

Preface

I wrote the first edition of this book while disabled from a car accident after which I developed chronic pain and lost partial use of my hands. Unable to chop vegetables, I wrote it from bed and the couch on an iPad to get over a failed project that haunted me called Career Explorer. Having been injured weeks before the ship date, getting the product over the line, staying up for days and doing whatever it took, became a traumatic experience. During the project, we made many mistakes I knew not to make, and I was continuously frustrated. The product bombed. A sense of failure routinely bugged me while I was stuck, horizontal on my back most of the time with intractable chronic pain. Also suffering from a heart condition, missing a third of my heartbeats, I developed dementia. My mind sank to a dark place. I could not easily find a way out. I had to find a way to fix things, to grapple with failure. Strange to say that to fix myself, I wrote a book. I needed to write directions I could give to teammates to make my next project a success. I needed to get this story out of me. More than that, I thought I could bring meaning back to my life, most of which had been shed by disability, by helping others. By doing something for the greater good. I wanted to ensure that others did not repeat my mistakes. I thought that was worth doing. There was a problem this project illustrated that was bigger than me. Most research sits on a shelf and never gets into the hands of people it can ...