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Will Koehrsen
Will Koehrsen

37K Followers

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Dec 14, 2020

DrivenData Interview

My path to becoming a full-stack data scientist, helpful data science tools and resources, machine learning competitions, our obligation to use data science for good, and more — In October 2020, I was interviewed by DrivenData, an organization that hosts data science competitions for good, one of which I placed second in while teaching myself data science. My interview appeared condensed and edited on DrivenData’s blog and here are my full, unedited answers.

Data Science

13 min read

DrivenData Interview
DrivenData Interview
Data Science

13 min read


Published in Towards Data Science

·Mar 10, 2020

A Data Science Conversation

How to teach yourself data science, earning data science jobs through projects, and other lessons from my interview on the Towards Data Science podcast. — Talking is a lot like writing in that it forces you to formulate vague ideas into understandable, concrete concepts. Often, we think we know an idea, but we don’t truly comprehend the theory unless we can communicate it clearly in words to someone else. …

Data Science

3 min read

A Data Science Conversation
A Data Science Conversation
Data Science

3 min read


Jan 2, 2020

12 Lessons from 55,000 pages of books

How 136 books can update our prior knowledge of the world — Reading 136 books in a year does not get you to enlightenment. It may lead in the other direction, towards greater confusion. How? In those 55,000 pages, you are bound to find inconsistencies, such as pieces of advice that directly contradict each other. You are also guaranteed to read about…

Reading

14 min read

12 Lessons from 55,000 pages of books
12 Lessons from 55,000 pages of books
Reading

14 min read


Dec 31, 2019

Books of 2019

One Year, 136 books, innumerable lessons — Before we get started: reading books does not make you a better person, and it doesn’t necessarily make you smarter. Reading is just a form of entertainment, and a reading habit isn’t superior to a movie-watching or exercising habit. I choose to spend my free time reading, but I don’t…

Reading

58 min read

Books of 2019
Books of 2019
Reading

58 min read


Dec 27, 2019

“Just Do It” Won’t Get You to Your Goals

Effective strategies for goal attainment — Rule number one for achieving goals: don’t take advice from athletic apparel company slogans. “I am what I am,” “impossible is nothing,” and of course, “just do it” may be effective at selling sporting goods, but they contradict proven methods for reaching your objectives. …

Productivity

12 min read

“Just Do It” Won’t Get You to Your Goals
“Just Do It” Won’t Get You to Your Goals
Productivity

12 min read


Dec 17, 2019

My Early Career Principles

Lessons from a year in the working world — After 16–20 years of schooling designed to produce efficient, docile factory workers, students are released into the “real” world, where none of the rules they’ve learned apply. Working with others is now called collaboration instead of cheating, there are no simple right/wrong answers, and, instead of being told to sit…

Self Improvement

12 min read

My Early Career Principles
My Early Career Principles
Self Improvement

12 min read


Published in Towards Data Science

·Dec 9, 2019

Lessons from a Year in the Data Science Trenches

Five takeaways from learning to put machine learning in production at Cortex Building Intelligence — Over the past year, I’ve gone from the simple world of writing Jupyter Notebooks to developing machine learning pipelines that deliver real-time recommendations to building engineers around the clock. While I have room for improvement (I still make plenty of coding and data science mistakes), I’ve managed to learn a…

Data Science

13 min read

Lessons from a Year in the Data Science Trenches
Lessons from a Year in the Data Science Trenches
Data Science

13 min read


Aug 6, 2019

The Mundanity of Excellence: Talent Does Not Determine Success and Why That Terrifies People

On the Ordinary Nature of High Performance — There are two groups of people in the world, those who see the following as an opportunity and those who find it absolutely terrifying: Innate talent is not the cause of success in any field. The first group of people read this and say “great, that means there’s nothing stopping…

Self Improvement

9 min read

The Mundanity of Excellence: Talent Does Not Determine Success and Why That Terrifies People
The Mundanity of Excellence: Talent Does Not Determine Success and Why That Terrifies People
Self Improvement

9 min read


Published in Towards Data Science

·Aug 4, 2019

Most People Screw Up Multiple Percent Changes. Here’s How to Get Them Right.

Solving a Common Math Problem with Everyday Applications — Incredibly, after 16 years of schooling, the majority of American college students get this question wrong: What is the total percentage change in the following situation? Decrease of 40% followed by an increase of 60%. A. Increase of 10% B. Increase of 20% C. Decrease of 4% D. None of…

Statistics

9 min read

Most People Screw Up Multiple Percent Changes. Here’s How to Get Them Right.
Most People Screw Up Multiple Percent Changes. Here’s How to Get Them Right.
Statistics

9 min read


Jul 31, 2019

How to Access Pages Missing from the Internet

Using the Wayback Machine to Find Lost Pages — 404 pages have gotten more creative over the years:

Tech

3 min read

How to Access Pages Missing from the Internet
How to Access Pages Missing from the Internet
Tech

3 min read

Will Koehrsen

Will Koehrsen

37K Followers

Data Scientist at Cortex Intel, Data Science Communicator

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