Peter Norvig’s Advice for Learning Data Science in the 21st century

“In 2021, professionals in the digital market space must be comfortable with data — period. They must know how to manipulate data, understand how it is collected, and analyze and interpret it. The future of decision making is grounded in data science.” — Wendy Moe, Professor of Marketing, University of Maryland

We produce tons of data each day and the speed is increasing at a rapid rate because of the internet. With so much information just at our fingertips, social media, google searches, and various communication platforms record our data every second.  Data Science is one of the most important domains of study in the 21st Century. It primarily means how vast volumes of data can be tackled using modern tools and techniques to find otherwise unseen patterns. These patterns can be used to derive meaningful insights and information to make business decisions. Complex machine learning algorithms can also be used to make and build predictive models.  According to Indeed, The average salary for a data scientist is ₹ 8,41,824 per year in India. Analysts predict that India will have more than 11 million job openings by 2026. In fact, since 2019, hiring in the data science industry has increased by 46%.

Thoughts of Peter Norvig

Peter Norvig, from Google, advises that learning requires time, patience, and commitment. Beware of articles, books, or websites that tell you that you can learn Data Science in 4 weeks. If a student is interested in learning the fundamentals of data science, he/she should be prepared to invest the right amount of time and energy. The subject demands an understanding of in-depth concepts and not superficial ones and most people opt for an MBA in Business Analytics and Data Science for a better understanding.

Some highly recommended reads are ``Applied Predictive Modeling” by Kuhn & Johnson, and “Data Mining: Practical Machine Learning Tools and Techniques” by Ian H. Witten, Eibe Frank & Mark A. Hall. 

Peter also mentions the importance of good networking, and how it has transformed learning in the 21st Century. He says that he personally learned a lot from weekly discussions and forums with fellow data scientists, where they had conversations ranging from data science tools to applied machine learning in different industries. Updating your progress on Linkedin and sharing your work with fellow aspirants can help you get a great hold over the subject. 

The concept of learning in 24 hours is highly flawed. Data science and Machine Learning are some of the highest demanding jobs in the market, and if you wish to explore more you can definitely consider getting an MBA degree in these subjects. 

Amongst many institutes, reputed colleges like the Bengal Institute of Business Studies have one of the best programs for an MBA in Data Science in Kolkata. The programme has been designed in collaboration with IBM and certified Subject Matter Experts will be teaching students, leading to globally valid certifications. 

With plenty of career opportunities and room for professional development, this degree lets you step out of your comfort zone and learn interesting concepts. You will learn different important performance indicators and metrics that will help you analyze data and take value from it. The digital revolution is allowing companies to produce large amounts of data on a daily basis. And for the same reason, the demand for data professionals will continue to grow. The right time to invest in an MBA degree is now. With a degree and professional knowledge about the subject, you have a successful career ahead of you.