Why Data Science Is Fascinating: A Beginner’s Guide

Discussing Data Science as a field from a high level

Jesse Ruiz (she/they)
4 min readAug 26, 2022

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Photo by Jamie Fenn on Unsplash

Why Data Science Is Fascinating: A Beginner’s Guide

The word “data” has become commonplace in recent years. We are constantly hearing about data collection and data analysis, not just from businesses but from pop culture as well. Data science is an emerging field that can be daunting for those who are new to it, as there are many terms you may not be familiar with: machine learning algorithms, probabilistic algorithms, vector regression, and logistic regression, etc. In this article, I will give you a quick introduction to what data science is and why it’s so fascinating!

What is Data Science?

Data science is the application of computational methods to discover insights from data. Data science has been referred to as “the new frontier in the humanities” given its impact on a wide variety of fields. Computational methods are applied to data in order to find patterns, predict outcomes, and shed light on questions that cannot be answered through other means. Data scientists often have backgrounds in computer science, mathematics, and engineering, but the field itself is very interdisciplinary. A data scientist may have expertise in a wide variety of fields including statistics, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and computer programming. Data science is used to tackle a broad set of problems, such as how to optimize a business’s customer experience, how to accurately predict election results, or how to find new medical cures.

TLDR: Why is data science fascinating?

  1. Pays a lot
  2. Stable/steady career
  3. Interdisciplinarity
  4. Applicable to many fields (means you can work in many fields)
  5. Powerful mathematical, statistical knowledge
  6. Novel ideas (constant learning)
  7. Amazing potential to change the world (impact)
  8. Cool applications in tech

Why is data science fascinating?

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Jesse Ruiz (she/they)

Data Engineer, Artist, Queer writing about tech and life