What Inspires You as a Data Scientist? | by TDS Editors | Jan, 2023

And just like that, it’s a new year! We hope you’ve been enjoying the first few days of 2023.

We know that many data scientists embark on new adventures and ambitious projects this time of year, and every new endeavor is also an opportunity to enhance our skills or acquire new ones.

Learning is at the core of any type of growth, professional or otherwise, but there are many other goals that motivate our readers. To help those of you who are just starting out in the field (or thinking about it), our January Edition offered a collection of resources for becoming a better learner.

As a complement to that roundup, we dedicate the first Variable of the year to recent articles that will inspire you to take action and give you fresh ideas to explore in the coming months. Enjoy!

• Harness the power of data for environmental change. No data scientist will singlehandedly solve the climate crisis, which is why growing the community of climate-aware practitioners is so crucial. Maybritt Schillinger contributes to this effort with a TDS debut that brings together physics, statistics, and time-series analysis to better understand climate variability.
• A few simple decisions can produce a major cumulative effect on your career. New year’s resolutions tend to be big and splashy — and easy to forget come February. Instead, Murtaza Ali proposes 10 concrete ideas—from learning to design a user study to choosing a personal project— that can help you become a stronger, more well-rounded data scientist.
• Is it time to push for a role switch? If you’re a data analyst who sees themselves as a future data scientist, Mary Newhauser’s guide is a must-read: it covers the ins and outs of transitioning between these roles. (It’s also a very useful resource if the career change you’re thinking about is a different one.)

And just like that, it’s a new year! We hope you’ve been enjoying the first few days of 2023.

We know that many data scientists embark on new adventures and ambitious projects this time of year, and every new endeavor is also an opportunity to enhance our skills or acquire new ones.

Learning is at the core of any type of growth, professional or otherwise, but there are many other goals that motivate our readers. To help those of you who are just starting out in the field (or thinking about it), our January Edition offered a collection of resources for becoming a better learner.

As a complement to that roundup, we dedicate the first Variable of the year to recent articles that will inspire you to take action and give you fresh ideas to explore in the coming months. Enjoy!

• Harness the power of data for environmental change. No data scientist will singlehandedly solve the climate crisis, which is why growing the community of climate-aware practitioners is so crucial. Maybritt Schillinger contributes to this effort with a TDS debut that brings together physics, statistics, and time-series analysis to better understand climate variability.
• A few simple decisions can produce a major cumulative effect on your career. New year’s resolutions tend to be big and splashy — and easy to forget come February. Instead, Murtaza Ali proposes 10 concrete ideas—from learning to design a user study to choosing a personal project— that can help you become a stronger, more well-rounded data scientist.
• Is it time to push for a role switch? If you’re a data analyst who sees themselves as a future data scientist, Mary Newhauser’s guide is a must-read: it covers the ins and outs of transitioning between these roles. (It’s also a very useful resource if the career change you’re thinking about is a different one.)