Why THIS DS Loves 'One-Punch Man'
WARNING: This is a "Data Science Philosophy" Post
CONFESSION: Thom LOVES the "One-Punch Man" anime / manga!
What does a manga / anime character have to do with "Data Science Philosophy"?
It has to do with career questions I get,
"Thom, Should I get an advanced degree in data science OR just take good online video courses?"
Let's look at Saitama - '''One-Punch Man'''.
In his world, Saitama is THE MOST POWERFUL HERO by a HUGE margin!
How did he become so powerful?
He trained, using very basic exercises, over and over, consistently, for 3 straight years.
When he explains this to people, they never believe him.
It sounds too basic - too simple.
How could such basic training result in a common man becoming so powerful?
For this reason -
""" Patient and consist efforts yield powerful individuals! """
Saitama didn't join the Hero Association (HA) in his world when he decided he wanted to BEcome a hero. The day that he decided that he wanted to BE a Hero, he started DOing heroic acts to save people from villains and monsters and also held consistently to his training regime. During his three years of training, no one knew all the amazing work that he'd done to reduce the number of monsters and villains in the world. In fact, many times they were accidentally attributed to another hero who has no abilities. Slowly, over time, with the help of a hero that wanted to be Saitama's disciple, Saitama learns how to make money as a hero. Saitama breaks all records in the physical portion of his HA exam to become a registered hero, but he does very poorly on the written exam. Why? He doesn't know about HA policies. He's already been training and defeating monsters for 3+ years. After that HA exam, his disciple is ranked as a top hero, and Saitama is put in the bottom class. However, slowly, he rises up the ranks and people start to learn that it is Saitama that is the STRONGEST hero. Many are slow to accept this, but Saitama's disciple is relentless in making sure that people know about all the good that he's done, because he simply continues to defeat every villian and monster.
What does this mean for us that want to BEcome great data scientists? Well, in my humble opinion, it means that NOTHING can replace the importance of our own consistent and patient self-learning on how to BEcome great data scientists on our own and nothing can replace the importance of DOing real world data science work on our own. We CAN get more visibility and make more money along the way IF we are careful to make sure the world sees our work. AND it also can't hurt if we have an advanced degree. It is one effective way to get more attention when seeking roles. However, such a degree is no actual measure of our abilities to apply data science successfully in the real world. That is attained through BEing a continual student of, and DOing continual projects in, data science.
Until next time,
Thom