What's a data hitchhiker?

2021-09-12

Don’t be alarmed, but I think you might be one.

Data hitchhikers are people like me that when I need some help I go out and ask for it through a tangible and relevant example. Sometimes it’s not enough to just know that you could get from point A to point B, but you want someone to take you, or tell you how they’ve done it before. Tangible and relevant is the key to data hitchhiking. Stories about working with data have to be relevant, in that it’s easy to see yourself in the shoes of those doing the data work. They also have to be tangible, so the most recent theory or algorithm isn’t a good use for a hitchhiker because it doesn’t connect to other concepts yet and is therefore difficult to connect with. Hitchhikers are applied data technologists that have a wealth of knowledge from seeing more to the world of data and have the ability to go new places through connecting.

I consider myself more an applied data scientist than an academic one. I feel like many people that will land on this site will find the same. They’re applied learners in the fields of data science, and even if they have an academic background, they find application more interesting then theory. Hopefully it will help someone with a problem, concept, or just let them kill 30 minutes on a coffee break and needing an escape from work.

In full disclosure, most of this site is a result of a course on marketing and analysis of the data. While I’ve toyed with blogs in the past, I’ve not committed to it in many years so hopefully someone gets something out of it!