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0 pointsphkahler5y ago0 comments

>> If you combine an average programmer with an average statistician, you get a profile that is not particularly attractive.

Nobody said being average at both was enough. The parent post specifically said if you know more than average in both areas. You still need to be good, but the combination of good in multiple areas is claimed to be sort of like being extraordinary in one. I think there's some truth in that.

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mywittyname5y ago

I still think the parent has a strong point though. Stats and CS are correlated skill sets. Almost all CS people learn a good bit of statistics as part of their education process, and I suspect that most statisticians are passable programmers. The fact that we have a term for the combination of both skills suggests that being great in both is not unique, it just makes you a great data scientist.

The crux behind the idea of being better than average at two things makes you individually extraordinary is that the two skills are not correlated. An above average singer is probably an above average player of one or more instruments, but I'm sure there aren't many who are also great ice cream makers.

coryrc5y ago

> Almost all CS people learn a good bit of statistics

Oh how I wish that were true

gloatyegret5y ago

> Almost all CS people learn a good bit of statistics as part of their education

> The crux behind the idea of being better than average at two things makes you individually extraordinary is that the two skills are not correlated.

I don't know if "almost all CS people" come from better schools than mine, but I've never had a proper statistics course, and my degree has a "data science" stamp on it. Having good statistics skills, and not just good knowledge of some machine learning frameworks, is probably rarer than you think.

phkahlerOP5y ago

>> but I've never had a proper statistics course, and my degree has a "data science" stamp on it.

How do they justify that? ML is not IMHO the same thing, but maybe times are changing?

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