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Harrison Jansma Follow

Sep 16, 2018 · 9 min read · · Listen

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How To Learn Data

Science If You’re Broke
Over the last year, I taught myself data
science. I learned from hundreds of online
resources and studied 6–8 hours every day. All
while working for minimum wage at a day-
care.

My goal was to start a career I was passionate

about, despite my lack of funds.

Because of this choice I have accomplished a

lot over the last few months. I published my
own website, was posted in a major online
data science publication, and was given
scholarships to a competitive computer
science graduate program.

In the following article, I give guidelines and

advice so you can make your own data
science curriculum. I hope to give others the
tools to begin their own educational journey.
So they can begin to work towards a more
passionate career in data science.

A Quick Note
When I say “data science”, I am referring to
the collection of tools that turn data into real-
world actions. These include machine
learning, database technologies, statistics,
programming, and domain-specific
technologies.

A few resources to start out your

journey.
The internet is a chaotic mess. Learning from
it can often feel like drinking from the fun
end of a fire-hose.

source

There are simpler alternatives that offer to

sort the mess for you.

Sites like Dataquest, DataCamp, and Udacity

all offer to teach you data science skills. Each
creating an education program that
shepherds you from topic to topic. Each
requires little course-planning on your part.

The problem? They cost too much, they don’t

teach you how to apply concepts in a job
setting, and they prevent you from exploring
your own interests and passions.

There are free alternatives like edX and

coursera which offer one-off courses diving
into specific topics. If you learn well from
videos or a classroom setting, these are
excellent ways to learn data science.

Free Online Education Platforms

Check out this website for a listing of

available data science courses. There are also
a few free course curricula you can use.
Check out David Venturi’s post, or the Open
Source DS Masters (a more traditional
education plan).

If you learn well from reading, look at the

Data Science From Scratch book. This
textbook is a full learning plan that can be
supplemented with online resources. You can
find the full book online or get a physical
copy from Amazon ($27).

These are just a few of the free resources that

provide a detailed learning path for data
science. There are many more.

To better understand the skills you need to

acquire on your educational journey, in the
next section I detail a broader curriculum
guideline. This is intended to be high-level,
and not just a list of courses to take or books
to read.

A Curriculum Guideline

Data Science Curriculum Guideline

Python Programming
Programming is a fundamental skill of data
scientists. Get comfortable with the syntax of
Python. Understand how to run a python
program in many different ways. (Jupyter
notebook vs. command line vs IDE)

I took about a month to review the Python

docs, the Hitchhiker’s Guide to Python, and
coding challenges on CodeSignal.

Hint: Keep an ear out for common problem-

solving techniques used by programmers.
(pronounced “algorithms”)

Statistics & Linear Algebra

A prerequisite for machine learning and data
analysis. If you already have a solid
understanding spend a week or two brushing
up on key concepts.

Focus especially hard on descriptive

statistics. Being able to understand a data set
is a skill worth its weight in gold.

Numpy, Pandas, & Matplotlib

Learn how to load, manipulate, and visualize
data. Mastery of these libraries will be crucial
to your personal projects.

Quick hint: Don’t feel like you have to

memorize every method or function name,
that comes with practice. If you forget,
Google it.

Check out the Pandas Docs, Numpy Docs, and

Matplotlib Tutorials. There are better
resources out there, but these are what I
used.

Remember, the only way you will learn these

libraries is by using them!

Machine Learning
Learn the theory and application of machine
learning algorithms. Then apply the concepts
you learn to real-world data that you care
about.

Most beginners start by working with toy

data-sets from the UCI ML Repository. Play
around with the data and go through guided
ML tutorials.

The Scikit-learn documentation has excellent

tutorials on the application of common
algorithms. I also found this podcast to be a
great (and free) educational resource behind
the theory of ML. You can listen to it on your
commute or while working out.

Production Systems
Getting a job means being able to take real-
world data and turn it into action.

To do this you will need to learn how to use a

business’ computational resources to get,
transform, and process data.

Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure

This is the most under-taught part of the data

science curriculum. Mainly because the
specific tools you use depend on the industry
you are going in to.

However, database manipulation is a

required skill set. You can learn how to
manipulate databases with code on
ModeAnalytics or Codecademy. You can also
implement your own database (cheaply) on
DigitalOcean.

Another (often) required skill is version

control. You can acquire this skill easily by
creating a GitHub account and using the
command line to commit your code daily.

When considering what other technologies to

learn, it is important to think about your
interests and passions. For example, if you
are interested in web development, then look
into the tools used by companies in that
industry.

Advice for executing your curriculum.

by Ugur Akdemir on Unsplash

1. Concepts will come at you faster than

you can learn them.
There are literally thousands of web pages
and forums explaining the use of common
data science tools. Because of this, it is very
easy to get side-tracked while learning online.

When you start researching a topic you need

to hold your goal in mind. If you don’t, you
risk getting caught up in whatever catchy link
draws your eye.

The solution, get a good storage system to

save interesting web-resources. This way you
can save material for later, and focus on the
topic that is relevant to you at the moment.

My current Chrome Bookmarks Bar

If you do this right, you can make an ordered

learning path that shows you what you should
be focused on. You will also learn faster and
avoid being distracted.

Warning, your reading list will quickly grow

into the hundreds as you explore new topics
that interest you. Don’t worry, this leads us to
my second piece of advice.

2. Don’t stress. Its a marathon, not a

sprint.
Having a self-driven education can often feel
like trying to read a never-ending library of
knowledge.

If you’re going to be successful in data science

you need to think of your education as a
lifelong process.

Just remember, the process of learning is its

own reward.

Throughout your educational journey, you

will explore your interests and discover more
about what drives you. The more you learn
about yourself, the more enjoyment you will
get out of learning.

3. Learn -> Apply -> Repeat

Don’t settle for just learning a concept and
then moving to the next thing. The process of
learning doesn’t stop until you can apply a
concept to the real world.

by Allef Vinicius on Unsplash

Not every concept needs to have a dedicated

project in your portfolio. But it is important to
stay grounded and remember that you are
learning so you can make an impact in the
world.

4. Build a portfolio, it shows others they

can trust you.
When it comes down to it, skepticism is one
of the biggest adversities you will face when
learning data science.

This may come from others, or it may come

from yourself.

Your portfolio is your way of showing the

world that you are capable and confident in
your own skills.

Because of this, building a portfolio is the

single most important thing you can do while
studying data science. A good portfolio can
land you a job and make you a more
confident data scientist.

Fill your portfolio with projects that you are

proud of.

Did you build your own web app from

scratch? Did you make your own IMDB
database? Have you written an interesting
data analysis of healthcare data?

Put it in your portfolio.

Just make sure write-ups are readable, the

code is well documented, and the portfolio
itself looks good.

https://harrisonjansma.com/archive

This is my portfolio. A simpler method to

publish your portfolio is to create a GitHub
repository that includes a great ReadMe
(summary page) as well as relevant project
files.

Here is an aesthetically pleasing, yet simple,

GitHub portfolio. For a more advanced
portfolio, look into GitHub-IO to host your
own free website. (example)

5. Data Science + _______ = A Passionate

Career

Fill in the blank.

Data science is a set of tools intended to make
a change in the world. Some data scientists
build computer vision systems to diagnose
medical images, others traverse billions of
data entries to find patterns in website user
preferences.

The applications of data science are endless,

that’s why it is important to find what
applications excite you.

If you find topics that you are passionate

about, you will be more willing to put in the
work to make a great project. This leads to my
favorite piece of advice in this article.

When you are learning, keep your eyes open

for projects or ideas that excite you.

Stefan Steinbauer on Unsplash

Once you have spent time learning, try to

connect the dots. Find similarities between
projects that fascinate you. Then spend some
time researching industries that work on
those types of projects.

Once you find an industry that you are

passionate about, make it your goal to acquire
the skills and technical expertise needed in
that business.

If you can do this, you will be primed to turn

your hard work and dedication for learning
into a passionate and successful career.

Conclusion
If you love making discoveries about the
world. If you are fascinated by artificial
intelligence. Then you can break into the data
science industry no matter what your
situation is.

It won’t be easy.

To motivate your own education you will need

perseverance and discipline. But if you are
the type of person who can push yourself to
improve, you are more than capable of
mastering these skills on your own.

After all, that’s what being a data scientist is

all about. Being curious, self-driven, and
passionate about finding answers.

Follow me if you want more high-quality data

science articles.

Data Science Programming Education

Machine Learning Learning

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