What I've learnt from a month of coding
My rambling reflections on data science and my learning journey
I never thought of myself as a scientist, let alone a mathematician. I always thought I’d go into something stereotypically creative. I loved (and continue to love) art, music and creative writing.
8 years down the line, I’m submitting my Honours thesis on the effects of BPA and light pollution on aquatic fish, graduating from university with a degree in biology and mathematics, and teaching myself how to code. Life’s crazy like that sometimes I guess.
It’s been exactly a month since I started coding (Python) almost every single day. Why, you ask? I have an inherent need to be busy, and with the submission of a year-long Honours project I figured it was the perfect time. I’ve also started working for a conservation tech startup known as Xylo Systems and I knew the coding skills would come in handy (and already have!).
I’ve been working my way through the Codecademy Data Science career path. It’s been a fantastic way to expose myself to a variety of important elements of coding and refresh the skills I honed in my undergrad. I learnt a considerable amount of coding over my degree but just like learning French or playing the piano, you have to be consistent. If you don’t use it, you lose it.
In addition to brushing up my Python fundamentals, including iteration and manipulating dataframes, I’ve re-learnt a lot about the scientific method in the context of data science. A surprisingly refreshing experience! Much of my degree centered around how to design experiments and analyse the results in order to confirm or reject hypotheses and in data science it’s exactly the same. Learning how to collect data and justify every step of the process is incredibly important. Data collection gets a lot of the credit for interesting results, but the real ‘secret sauce’ of science is what we do with that data.
As a conservationist and biologist, I see how these skills could be extended to industries which have little innovation in methodology or technology. Conservation tech is in the stone age and moving forward at a snail's pace in comparison to the hype and speed of industries like crypto. Regardless, it’s very clear to me that all industries must carefully consider the management and analysis of their data. Data is information, and information is power. In the right hands this power can do a lot of good. (The inverse of this statement is also a serious reality, but more on this another time. Data security and abuse is a can of worms I’m still learning a lot about.)
It feels exposing to share my learning journey but I know I’ll appreciate looking back on this as I continue to progress. Coming from a mathematics background, a lot of the logic and theory behind coding feels familiar and comforting as I branch out my skills. What doesn’t feel comfortable, however, is my butt sitting in this god forsaken chair. As someone who feels most at home in nature, I’m attempting to balance the ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ elements of my life. More on that another time perhaps too.