Learning to love data science is a collection of reports that Mike Barlow wrote for O’Reilly Media in 2013, 2014, and 2015. The reports focused on topics generally associated with data science, machine learning, predictive analytics, and “big data,” a term that has largely fallen from favour. Since Mike is a journalist and not a scientist, he approached the reports from the perspective of a curious outsider.
The reports betray his sense of amused detachment, which is probably the right way to approach writing about a field like data science, and his ultimate faith in the value of technology, which seems unjustifiably optimistic. At any rate, the reports provide valuable snapshots, taken almost randomly, of a field whose scale, scope, and influence are ____growing steadily. Mike’s reports are like dispatches from a battlefield; they aren’t history, but they provide an exciting and reasonably accurate picture of life on the front lines.
With this book, you’ll learn how:
■ Big data is driving a new generation of predictive analytics, creating new products, new business models, and new markets
■ New analytics tools let businesses leap beyond data analysis and go straight to decision-making
■ Indie manufacturers are blurring the lines between hardware and software products
■ Companies are learning to balance their desire for rapid innovation with the need to tighten data security
■ Big data and predictive analytics are applied for social good, resulting in higher standards of living for millions of people
■ Advanced analytics and low-cost sensors are transforming equipment maintenance from a cost centre to a profit centre
