Book : Data Science by John D Kelleher & Brendan Tierney

I was chatting with Brendan Tierney and the subject of books came up. He mentioned his Data Science book and I figured I would give it a go. I wasn’t sure I would be able to cope with it, as it is not my area of expertise, but he assured me it was more of an introduction to the subject, so one Audible credit later and I was off.

When judging books on Audible there are two criteria. There is the content, and then there is the voice narration.

Having just gone through the Dune series again, and recently doing loads of Larry Niven books, including the Ringworld series and the Fleet of Worlds series, I was a bit spoilt by the voice narration of fiction books.

I struggled at first with the voice narration on this book. It was clear, but the guys accent was grating on me. At one point I stopped listening, then realised I was being a dick and went back to it. I’ve now finished it, and I’ve actually started listening to it again. I’m sure I missed some stuff on my first pass through…

I’m not going to lie, there were some bits that definitely went over my head, but for the most part it was pretty easy to follow. It talks more about the general approaches to data science, rather than focusing on specific bits of technology. This was a good move by the authors because it means the book stays relevant, even as the “what’s cool today?” technologies keep changing…

The sections related to data protection and the ethical issues with data science were cool. I found myself talking over some of these points with myself while I was driving… 🙂

If you are new to Data Science, or just have a passing interest in it like me, I think this book is worth a shot.

Cheers

Tim…