

Ask HN: Why is data science so popular with developers? - dannyrosen

I notice that a lot of software developers at my workplace are mystified by data science. What about data science is attractive to software engineers?
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minimaxir
Knowing how to apply statistics is a good way to determine answers to
questions. And knowing answers to questions isn't a skill used only by
developers; it's a skill useful for _every profession_.

"Data science" is more-or-less a buzzword that sounds cool.

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mnemonicsloth
It's new. It's similar to what they already do. It isn't trivial like cat
pictures or boring like databases. It's obviously going to be very important.
It is believed to involve math. It can be about almost anything, including
things people talk about at cocktail parties. Because it is new, it is not
necessarily about anything in particular.

And it has been talked up for years by attractive, articulate, impressively
credentialed and well to do people who seem to be getting everything they want
out of life.

[http://www.hilarymason.com/about/](http://www.hilarymason.com/about/)

