
The Data Science Handbook - redd
http://www.thedatasciencehandbook.com/
======
warsheep
I'm going to sound very aggressive, but I don't understand the point of this
book. They say

> The material in this book is too valuable not to share.

and after reading the sample I feel their definition of valuable doesn't align
with mine. It's a "handbook" but the chapters are interviews that don't go in
depth into anything. Here's a sample "question"

> Compassion is also critical for designing beautiful and intuitive products,
> by solving the pain of the user. Is that how you chose to work in product,
> as the embodiment of data?

Really? This reads like an onion article about data science.

~~~
willis77
As a data scientist, I draw inspiration from the infinite depths of
understanding. Life is merely the unfolding of a series of recursive
recommendation engines, each one AB testing the local gradients of human
emotion. You think you are just buying a pair of socks online. Foolish mortal.
That transaction was a multi-armed map-reduce set into motion long before the
internet existed. Data science is the internet of things, it is big data at
the speed of entropy, quantum mechanics at the scale of desire.

In data we trust. All others bring EVEN. MORE. DATA.

~~~
coherentpony
Your comment is meaningless. I don't mean that negatively. I mean that it
really is meaningless. It's buzzwords connected together with a lack of
thought or direction.

~~~
ScottBurson
It is clearly satire.

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nadam
I am not a native english speaker and I am wondering why is a book, which is a
collection of interviews called a 'handbook'?

The definition of a handbook according to wikipedia: "A handbook is a type of
reference work, or other collection of instructions, that is intended to
provide ready reference."

~~~
ThisIBereave
Agreed. I was definitely expecting a reference, and I was confused that the
table of contents listed the authors & their positions before mentioning the
title of the chapter.

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snowmaker
I purchased the book. It is just a general series of interviews with high
profile data scientists. Kudos to the author for getting some very busy and
prominent people to agree to interviews.

I think it would be valuable to aspiring data scientists - students who are
looking to break into the field. It has good general advice on what
backgrounds companies look for and some inspiring and motivational stories.

It will not be useful for current data scientists looking for information on
how the companies in the book do data science. There are very few technical
details included.

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Fluid_Mechanics
Flashy website, but a quick background check of the contributors reveals that
they've barely been working at their respective positions for over a year.

In any event, kudos on providing an interesting narrative.

~~~
hessenwolf
Mmph. Ja. Skimmed the first three chapters. Not guru material.

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baldfat
Love the business plan. Also love the format in terms of interviews. I have
over the years learned more from interviews and just watching someone's
workflow and them doing day to day "mundane" work than offical teaching
sessions.

I am always surprised how experts in fields under value their own mundane
work. If people would just share the studpid day to day stuff people would
find great value in that even more than their more advanced work.

Experts are the one's true genious is the things that are easy for them and
not neccesarily the advance stuff.

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discardorama
I've been in "data science" since the early days (~1997), but I have heard of
just 2 of these 25 people before: Hillary and Kunal. Am I that clueless?

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gedrap
Sort of related, a couple of free decent books with interviews with data
scientists

[http://www.datascienceweekly.org/pdf/DataScienceWeekly_DataS...](http://www.datascienceweekly.org/pdf/DataScienceWeekly_DataScientistInterviews-
Vol2-Dec2014.pdf)

[http://www.datascienceweekly.org/pdf/DataScienceWeekly-
DataS...](http://www.datascienceweekly.org/pdf/DataScienceWeekly-
DataScientistInterviews-Vol1-April2014.pdf)

------
patrickmclaren
In the past, when considering the term 'Data Science', I've assumed that this
is roughly equivalent to the union of Probability Models, Statistics (with a
view towards Decision Theory), CS, and Graphic/Web Design (perhaps throw in
some knowledge of Heuristics and Biases too.) The number of individuals with
sufficient experience in _all_ of these fields should be significantly smaller
than those in any given field alone.

I am aware the the demand for Data Scientists is higher than Statisticians at
the present, at least in the US. Assuming that there is a non-trivial amount
of employed Data Scientists, one is led to the conclusion that there is fairly
large portion of under-skilled Data Scientists.

My question is, assuming the above hypothesis, do Data Scientists, on average,
under-deliver, or are job requirements lowballed to avoid failure? First
thoughts would be to compare to Quants, or Actuaries.

I have a belief that Data Scientist jobs are created due to the following
process: Startup founded => Data collection => Predictive Model Exists => Data
Scientist => "Visually confirm" hypothesis and send to marketing department.
Obviously, the current order of this chain is not correct. A priori, mere
sampling does not simultaneously guarantee regularity and high Fisher
information.

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geromek
Based on my interest in this field I am willing to pay around $5 for the book.
However I agree that it is not a fair price. What should I do? Note that it is
not a matter of money. I could afford the suggested price or even more but I
am not that interested in the topic.

Downloading for free is not morally acceptable for me, I would like to support
this business plan.

~~~
darkxanthos
Sounds like you pay $5. If you don't buy it the authors will be worse off
since they won't have any money.

~~~
geromek
Yeah, although I am not a big fan of "the ends justify the means" saying :)

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rgejman
Is there a sample chapter? It's hard to know if I want to purchase it without
knowing anything about how the book is written or whether it tried to achieve
its purpose.

~~~
globuous
Can't you download it for free, look through it and then "re-purchase" it for
a price you feel is fair ?

~~~
atwebb
That's what I did, do it pretty often with music as well (man I love
bandcamp), if I wind up using it a few times I go pay the asking price.

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tezka
this is the most useless book posted on HN.

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bybjorn
Their website is down, here's a direct link to the page where you can purchase
the book:
[https://gumroad.com/l/rdHh?wanted=true](https://gumroad.com/l/rdHh?wanted=true)

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asimjalis
Here is a sample chapter.
[http://wzchen.com/s/the_data_science_handbook_three_free_sam...](http://wzchen.com/s/the_data_science_handbook_three_free_sample_chapters.pdf)

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tonyhburns
Thank you for this! I love the interview format as well. One bit of feedback
so far as I haven't actually started reading yet, it would be helpful to have
bookmarks in the PDF to be able to jump around. Thanks again!

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fasteo
>> Typically, books like this cost between $20 to $30

>> ... too valuable not to share

>> ... generosity

>> ... share

>> ... minimum contribution of FREE

>> ... suggested contribution of $19

This is too weird. Is this some kind of social experiment on price framing ?

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viggity
if the author is reading this, I'd pay $40 for the audio. I'm assuming you
recorded each interview so it could be transcribed. I've got 3 kids and
audiobooks/podcasts during my commute is the only realistic time I can consume
bulk content.

~~~
pericarus
Thanks for the feedback, Viggity! - we will think about that (we have all the
audio, but there is some processing involved...)

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pawelrychlik
I'd love to read a sample chapter or at least a few pages before buying the
complete book.

~~~
collyw
Can you not download it for free, and essentially do that?

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firegrind
The requested URL "/", is invalid, apparently

~~~
firegrind
nevermind, looks healthier now ...

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mceoin
Max (et. al) - way to go & congrats on publishing!

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oulipo
Cool work, I know Max and he is passionate & loves interviewing people. This
is totally worth the read!

~~~
damln
I just met Max and we had the opportunity to discuss a lot this weekend. The
book looks very promising. Just buy it guys.

