Data Smart, 2nd Edition

Introduction

What Am I Doing Here?

If you're reading this book, it's because on some level you understand the importance of both data and data science in your business and career.

The original Data Smart was written more than a decade ago. John Foreman, the first book's author, exposed a new generation of readers to the supposed magic behind the curtain of data science. John proved that data science didn't have to be so mysterious. You could both understand and do data science in something as humble as the spreadsheet.

John's words severed as a prescient warning for what would come. He noted the “buzz about data science,” and the pressure it created on businesses to take on data science projects and hire data scientists without even fully understanding why.

The truth is most people are going about data science all wrong. They're starting with buying the tools and hiring the consultants. They're spending all their money before they even know what they want, because a purchase order seems to pass for actual progress in many companies these days.

John's words still ring true today. Ten years after the first wave of interest in data science, the data science machine is still working in full force, churning out ideas faster than we can articulate the opportunities and challenges they present to business and society. In my last book, Becoming a Data Head: How to Think, Speak and Understand Data Science, Statistics and Machine Learning (Wiley, New York, NY, 2021), my coauthor and ...