Joel Grus presented at the Seattle DAML meetup discussing essential skills for data scientists, emphasizing the importance of foundational knowledge alongside practical skills. He highlighted the need for proficiency in running regressions, writing SQL queries, web scraping, and hypothesis testing, among other skills. Grus also advocated for learning through building projects and provided insights on the balance between mathematical understanding and practical application in data science.

1. Joel Grus
Seattle DAML Meetup
June 23, 2015
Data Science from Scratch

2. About me
Old-school DAML-er
Wrote a book ---------->
SWE at Google
Formerly data science at
VoloMetrix, Decide,
Farecast

3. The Road to
Data Science

4. The Road to
Data Science
My

6. Grad School

9. Fareology

10. Data Science Is A Broad Field
Some Stuff
More
Stuff
Even
More
Stuff
Data
Science
People who think they're
data scientists, but they're
not really data scientists
People who are a danger
to everyone around them
People who say
"machine learnings"

12. a data scientist should be able to
JOEL GRUS

13. a data scientist should be able to
run a regression,
JOEL GRUS

14. a data scientist should be able to
run a regression, write a sql query,
JOEL GRUS

15. a data scientist should be able to
run a regression, write a sql query, scrape a web
site,
JOEL GRUS

16. a data scientist should be able to
run a regression, write a sql query, scrape a web
site, design an experiment,
JOEL GRUS

17. a data scientist should be able to
run a regression, write a sql query, scrape a web
site, design an experiment, factor matrices,
JOEL GRUS

18. a data scientist should be able to
run a regression, write a sql query, scrape a web
site, design an experiment, factor matrices, use a
data frame,
JOEL GRUS

19. a data scientist should be able to
run a regression, write a sql query, scrape a web
site, design an experiment, factor matrices, use a
data frame, pretend to understand deep learning,
JOEL GRUS

20. a data scientist should be able to
run a regression, write a sql query, scrape a web
site, design an experiment, factor matrices, use a
data frame, pretend to understand deep learning,
steal from the d3 gallery,
JOEL GRUS

21. a data scientist should be able to
run a regression, write a sql query, scrape a web
site, design an experiment, factor matrices, use a
data frame, pretend to understand deep learning,
steal from the d3 gallery, argue r versus python,
JOEL GRUS

22. a data scientist should be able to
run a regression, write a sql query, scrape a web
site, design an experiment, factor matrices, use a
data frame, pretend to understand deep learning,
steal from the d3 gallery, argue r versus python,
think in mapreduce,
JOEL GRUS

23. a data scientist should be able to
run a regression, write a sql query, scrape a web
site, design an experiment, factor matrices, use a
data frame, pretend to understand deep learning,
steal from the d3 gallery, argue r versus python,
think in mapreduce, update a prior,
JOEL GRUS

24. a data scientist should be able to
run a regression, write a sql query, scrape a web
site, design an experiment, factor matrices, use a
data frame, pretend to understand deep learning,
steal from the d3 gallery, argue r versus python,
think in mapreduce, update a prior, build a
dashboard,
JOEL GRUS

25. a data scientist should be able to
run a regression, write a sql query, scrape a web
site, design an experiment, factor matrices, use a
data frame, pretend to understand deep learning,
steal from the d3 gallery, argue r versus python,
think in mapreduce, update a prior, build a
dashboard, clean up messy data,
JOEL GRUS

26. a data scientist should be able to
run a regression, write a sql query, scrape a web
site, design an experiment, factor matrices, use a
data frame, pretend to understand deep learning,
steal from the d3 gallery, argue r versus python,
think in mapreduce, update a prior, build a
dashboard, clean up messy data, test a hypothesis,
JOEL GRUS

27. a data scientist should be able to
run a regression, write a sql query, scrape a web
site, design an experiment, factor matrices, use a
data frame, pretend to understand deep learning,
steal from the d3 gallery, argue r versus python,
think in mapreduce, update a prior, build a
dashboard, clean up messy data, test a hypothesis,
talk to a businessperson,
JOEL GRUS

28. a data scientist should be able to
run a regression, write a sql query, scrape a web
site, design an experiment, factor matrices, use a
data frame, pretend to understand deep learning,
steal from the d3 gallery, argue r versus python,
think in mapreduce, update a prior, build a
dashboard, clean up messy data, test a hypothesis,
talk to a businessperson, script a shell,
JOEL GRUS

29. a data scientist should be able to
run a regression, write a sql query, scrape a web
site, design an experiment, factor matrices, use a
data frame, pretend to understand deep learning,
steal from the d3 gallery, argue r versus python,
think in mapreduce, update a prior, build a
dashboard, clean up messy data, test a hypothesis,
talk to a businessperson, script a shell, code on a
whiteboard,
JOEL GRUS

30. a data scientist should be able to
run a regression, write a sql query, scrape a web
site, design an experiment, factor matrices, use a
data frame, pretend to understand deep learning,
steal from the d3 gallery, argue r versus python,
think in mapreduce, update a prior, build a
dashboard, clean up messy data, test a hypothesis,
talk to a businessperson, script a shell, code on a
whiteboard, hack a p-value,
JOEL GRUS

31. a data scientist should be able to
run a regression, write a sql query, scrape a web
site, design an experiment, factor matrices, use a
data frame, pretend to understand deep learning,
steal from the d3 gallery, argue r versus python,
think in mapreduce, update a prior, build a
dashboard, clean up messy data, test a hypothesis,
talk to a businessperson, script a shell, code on a
whiteboard, hack a p-value, machine-learn a model.
JOEL GRUS

32. a data scientist should be able to
run a regression, write a sql query, scrape a web
site, design an experiment, factor matrices, use a
data frame, pretend to understand deep learning,
steal from the d3 gallery, argue r versus python,
think in mapreduce, update a prior, build a
dashboard, clean up messy data, test a hypothesis,
talk to a businessperson, script a shell, code on a
whiteboard, hack a p-value, machine-learn a model.
specialization is for engineers.
JOEL GRUS

33. A lot of stuff!

34. What Are Hiring Managers Looking For?

35. What Are Hiring Managers Looking For?
Let's check LinkedIn

37. a data scientist should be able to
run a regression, write a sql query, scrape a web
site, design an experiment, factor matrices, use a
data frame, pretend to understand deep learning,
steal from the d3 gallery, argue r versus python,
think in mapreduce, update a prior, build a
dashboard, clean up messy data, test a hypothesis,
talk to a businessperson, script a shell, code on a
whiteboard, hack a p-value, machine-learn a model.
specialization is for engineers.
JOEL GRUS
grad students!

38. Learning Data Science

39. I want to be a
data scientist. Great!

40. The Math Way
I like to start with
matrix
decompositions.
How's your
measure theory?

41. The Math Way
The Good:
Solid foundation
Math is the noblest
known pursuit

42. The Math Way
The Good:
Solid foundation
Math is the noblest
known pursuit
The Bad:
Some weirdos don't
think math is fun
Can be pretty
forbidding
Can miss practical
skills

43. So, did you
count the
words in that
document?
No, but I have an
elegant proof
that the number
of words is finite!

44. OK, Let's Try Again

45. I want to be a
data scientist. Great!

46. The Tools Way
Here's a list of
the 25 libraries
you really ought
to know. How's
your R
programming?

47. The Tools Way
The Good:
Don't have to
understand the
math
Practical
Can get started doing
fun stuff right away

48. The Tools Way
The Good:
Don't have to
understand the
math
Practical
Can get started doing
fun stuff right away
The Bad:
Don't have to
understand the
math
Can get started doing
bad science right
away

49. So, did you
build that
model?
Yes, and it fits the
training data
almost perfectly!

50. OK, Maybe Not That Either

51. So Then What?

52. Example: k-means clustering
Unsupervised machine learning technique
Given a set of points, group them into k clusters
in a way that minimizes the within-cluster sum-
of-squares
i.e. in a way such that the clusters are as "small"
as possible (for a particular conception of
"small")

54. The Math Way

55. The Math Way

56. The Tools Way
# a 2-dimensional example
x <- rbind(matrix(rnorm(100, sd = 0.3), ncol = 2),
matrix(rnorm(100, mean = 1, sd = 0.3), ncol = 2))
colnames(x) <- c("x", "y")
(cl <- kmeans(x, 2))
plot(x, col = cl$cluster)
points(cl$centers, col = 1:2, pch = 8, cex = 2)

57. The Tools Way
>>> from sklearn import cluster, datasets
>>> iris = datasets.load_iris()
>>> X_iris = iris.data
>>> y_iris = iris.target
>>> k_means = cluster.KMeans(n_clusters=3)
>>> k_means.fit(X_iris)
KMeans(copy_x=True, init='k-means++', ...
>>> print(k_means.labels_[::10])
[1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 2 2 2]
>>> print(y_iris[::10])
[0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2]

58. So What To Do?

59. Bootcamps?

60. Data Science from Scratch
This is to certify that Joel Grus
has honorably completed the course of study outlined in
the book Data Science from Scratch: First Principles with
Python, and is entitled to all the Rights, Privileges, and
Honors thereunto appertaining.
Joel GrusJune 23, 2015
Certificate Programs?

61. Hey! Data scientists!

62. Learning By Building
You don't really understand something until you
build it
For example, I understand garbage disposals
much better now that I had to replace one that
was leaking water all over my kitchen
More relevantly, I thought I understood
hypothesis testing, until I tried to write a book
chapter + code about it.

63. Learning By Building
Functional Programming

64. Break Things Down Into Small Functions

65. So you
don't end
up with
something
like this

66. Don't Mutate

67. Example: k-means clustering
Given a set of points, group them into k clusters
in a way that minimizes the within-cluster sum-
of-squares
Global optimization is hard, so use a greedy
iterative approach

68. Fun Motivation: Image Posterization
Image consists of pixels
Each pixel is a triplet (R,G,B)
Imagine pixels as points in space
Find k clusters of pixels
Recolor each pixel to its cluster mean
I think it's fun, anyway
8 colors

69. Example: k-means clustering
given some points, find k clusters by
choose k "means"
repeat:
assign each point to cluster of closest "mean"
recompute mean of each cluster
sounds simple! let's code!

70. def k_means(points, k, num_iters=10):
means = list(random.sample(points, k))
assignments = [None for _ in points]
for _ in range(num_iters):
# assign each point to closest mean
for i, point_i in enumerate(points):
d_min = float('inf')
for j, mean_j in enumerate(means):
d = sum((x - y)**2
for x, y in zip(point_i, mean_j))
if d < d_min:
d_min = d
assignments[i] = j
# recompute means
for j in range(k):
cluster = [point for i, point in enumerate(points) if assignments[i] ==
j]
means[j] = mean(cluster)
return means

71. def k_means(points, k, num_iters=10):
means = list(random.sample(points, k))
assignments = [None for _ in points]
for _ in range(num_iters):
# assign each point to closest mean
for i, point_i in enumerate(points):
d_min = float('inf')
for j, mean_j in enumerate(means):
d = sum((x - y)**2
for x, y in zip(point_i, mean_j))
if d < d_min:
d_min = d
assignments[i] = j
# recompute means
for j in range(k):
cluster = [point for i, point in enumerate(points) if assignments[i] ==
j]
means[j] = mean(cluster)
return means
start with k randomly chosen points

72. def k_means(points, k, num_iters=10):
means = list(random.sample(points, k))
assignments = [None for _ in points]
for _ in range(num_iters):
# assign each point to closest mean
for i, point_i in enumerate(points):
d_min = float('inf')
for j, mean_j in enumerate(means):
d = sum((x - y)**2
for x, y in zip(point_i, mean_j))
if d < d_min:
d_min = d
assignments[i] = j
# recompute means
for j in range(k):
cluster = [point for i, point in enumerate(points) if assignments[i] ==
j]
means[j] = mean(cluster)
return means
start with k randomly chosen points
start with no cluster assignments

73. def k_means(points, k, num_iters=10):
means = list(random.sample(points, k))
assignments = [None for _ in points]
for _ in range(num_iters):
# assign each point to closest mean
for i, point_i in enumerate(points):
d_min = float('inf')
for j, mean_j in enumerate(means):
d = sum((x - y)**2
for x, y in zip(point_i, mean_j))
if d < d_min:
d_min = d
assignments[i] = j
# recompute means
for j in range(k):
cluster = [point for i, point in enumerate(points) if assignments[i] ==
j]
means[j] = mean(cluster)
return means
start with k randomly chosen points
start with no cluster assignments
for each iteration

74. def k_means(points, k, num_iters=10):
means = list(random.sample(points, k))
assignments = [None for _ in points]
for _ in range(num_iters):
# assign each point to closest mean
for i, point_i in enumerate(points):
d_min = float('inf')
for j, mean_j in enumerate(means):
d = sum((x - y)**2
for x, y in zip(point_i, mean_j))
if d < d_min:
d_min = d
assignments[i] = j
# recompute means
for j in range(k):
cluster = [point for i, point in enumerate(points) if assignments[i] ==
j]
means[j] = mean(cluster)
return means
start with k randomly chosen points
start with no cluster assignments
for each iteration
for each point

75. def k_means(points, k, num_iters=10):
means = list(random.sample(points, k))
assignments = [None for _ in points]
for _ in range(num_iters):
# assign each point to closest mean
for i, point_i in enumerate(points):
d_min = float('inf')
for j, mean_j in enumerate(means):
d = sum((x - y)**2
for x, y in zip(point_i, mean_j))
if d < d_min:
d_min = d
assignments[i] = j
# recompute means
for j in range(k):
cluster = [point for i, point in enumerate(points) if assignments[i] ==
j]
means[j] = mean(cluster)
return means
start with k randomly chosen points
start with no cluster assignments
for each iteration
for each point
for each mean

76. def k_means(points, k, num_iters=10):
means = list(random.sample(points, k))
assignments = [None for _ in points]
for _ in range(num_iters):
# assign each point to closest mean
for i, point_i in enumerate(points):
d_min = float('inf')
for j, mean_j in enumerate(means):
d = sum((x - y)**2
for x, y in zip(point_i, mean_j))
if d < d_min:
d_min = d
assignments[i] = j
# recompute means
for j in range(k):
cluster = [point for i, point in enumerate(points) if assignments[i] ==
j]
means[j] = mean(cluster)
return means
start with k randomly chosen points
start with no cluster assignments
for each iteration
for each point
for each mean
compute the distance

77. def k_means(points, k, num_iters=10):
means = list(random.sample(points, k))
assignments = [None for _ in points]
for _ in range(num_iters):
# assign each point to closest mean
for i, point_i in enumerate(points):
d_min = float('inf')
for j, mean_j in enumerate(means):
d = sum((x - y)**2
for x, y in zip(point_i, mean_j))
if d < d_min:
d_min = d
assignments[i] = j
# recompute means
for j in range(k):
cluster = [point for i, point in enumerate(points) if assignments[i] ==
j]
means[j] = mean(cluster)
return means
start with k randomly chosen points
start with no cluster assignments
for each iteration
for each point
for each mean
compute the distance
assign the point to the cluster of the mean with
the smallest distance

78. def k_means(points, k, num_iters=10):
means = list(random.sample(points, k))
assignments = [None for _ in points]
for _ in range(num_iters):
# assign each point to closest mean
for i, point_i in enumerate(points):
d_min = float('inf')
for j, mean_j in enumerate(means):
d = sum((x - y)**2
for x, y in zip(point_i, mean_j))
if d < d_min:
d_min = d
assignments[i] = j
# recompute means
for j in range(k):
cluster = [point for i, point in enumerate(points) if assignments[i] ==
j]
means[j] = mean(cluster)
return means
start with k randomly chosen points
start with no cluster assignments
for each iteration
for each point
for each mean
compute the distance
assign the point to the cluster of the mean with
the smallest distance
find the points in each cluster

79. def k_means(points, k, num_iters=10):
means = list(random.sample(points, k))
assignments = [None for _ in points]
for _ in range(num_iters):
# assign each point to closest mean
for i, point_i in enumerate(points):
d_min = float('inf')
for j, mean_j in enumerate(means):
d = sum((x - y)**2
for x, y in zip(point_i, mean_j))
if d < d_min:
d_min = d
assignments[i] = j
# recompute means
for j in range(k):
cluster = [point for i, point in enumerate(points) if assignments[i] ==
j]
means[j] = mean(cluster)
return means
start with k randomly chosen points
start with no cluster assignments
for each iteration
for each point
for each mean
compute the distance
assign the point to the cluster of the mean with
the smallest distance
find the points in each cluster
and compute the new means

80. def k_means(points, k, num_iters=10):
means = list(random.sample(points, k))
assignments = [None for _ in points]
for _ in range(num_iters):
# assign each point to closest mean
for i, point_i in enumerate(points):
d_min = float('inf')
for j, mean_j in enumerate(means):
d = sum((x - y)**2
for x, y in zip(point_i, mean_j))
if d < d_min:
d_min = d
assignments[i] = j
# recompute means
for j in range(k):
cluster = [point for i, point in enumerate(points) if assignments[i] ==
j]
means[j] = mean(cluster)
return means
Not impenetrable, but
a lot less helpful than
it could be

81. def k_means(points, k, num_iters=10):
means = list(random.sample(points, k))
assignments = [None for _ in points]
for _ in range(num_iters):
# assign each point to closest mean
for i, point_i in enumerate(points):
d_min = float('inf')
for j, mean_j in enumerate(means):
d = sum((x - y)**2
for x, y in zip(point_i, mean_j))
if d < d_min:
d_min = d
assignments[i] = j
# recompute means
for j in range(k):
cluster = [point for i, point in enumerate(points) if assignments[i] ==
j]
means[j] = mean(cluster)
return means
Not impenetrable, but
a lot less helpful than
it could be
Can we make it
simpler?

82. Break Things Down Into Small Functions

83. def k_means(points, k, num_iters=10):
# start with k of the points as "means"
means = random.sample(points, k)
# and iterate finding new means
for _ in range(num_iters):
means = new_means(points, means)
return means

84. def new_means(points, means):
# assign points to clusters
# each cluster is just a list of points
clusters = assign_clusters(points, means)
# return the cluster means
return [mean(cluster)
for cluster in clusters]

85. def assign_clusters(points, means):
# one cluster for each mean
# each cluster starts empty
clusters = [[] for _ in means]
# assign each point to cluster
# corresponding to closest mean
for p in points:
index = closest_index(point, means)
clusters[index].append(point)
return clusters

86. def closest_index(point, means):
# return index of closest mean
return argmin(distance(point, mean)
for mean in means)
def argmin(xs):
# return index of smallest element
return min(enumerate(xs),
key=lambda pair: pair[1])[0]

87. To Recap
k_means(points, k, num_iters=10)
mean(points)
k_means(points, k, num_iters=10)
new_means(points, means)
assign_clusters(points, means)
closest_index(point, means)
argmin(xs)
distance(point1, point2)
mean(points)
add(point1, point2)
scalar_multiply(c, point)

88. As a Pedagogical Tool
Can be used "top down" (as we did here)
Implement high-level logic
Then implement the details
Nice for exposition
Can also be used "bottom up"
Implement small pieces
Build up to high-level logic
Good for workshops

89. Example: Decision Trees
Want to predict whether
a given Meetup is worth
attending (True) or not
(False)
Inputs are dictionaries
describing each Meetup
{ "group" : "DAML",
"date" : "2015-06-23",
"beer" : "free",
"food" : "dim sum",
"speaker" : "@joelgrus",
"location" : "Google",
"topic" : "shameless self-promotion" }
{ "group" : "Seattle Atheists",
"date" : "2015-06-23",
"location" : "Round the Table",
"beer" : "none",
"food" : "none",
"topic" : "Godless Game Night" }

90. Example: Decision Trees
{ "group" : "DAML",
"date" : "2015-06-23",
"beer" : "free",
"food" : "dim sum",
"speaker" : "@joelgrus",
"location" : "Google",
"topic" : "shameless self-promotion" }
{ "group" : "Seattle Atheists",
"date" : "2015-06-23",
"location" : "Round the Table",
"beer" : "none",
"food" : "none",
"topic" : "Godless Game Night" }
beer?
True False
speaker?
True False
free none
paid
@jakevdp @joelgrus

91. Example: Decision Trees
class LeafNode:
def __init__(self, prediction):
self.prediction = prediction
def predict(self, input_dict):
return self.prediction
class DecisionNode:
def __init__(self, attribute, subtree_dict):
self.attribute = attribute
self.subtree_dict = subtree_dict
def predict(self, input_dict):
value = input_dict.get(self.attribute)
subtree = self.subtree_dict[value]
return subtree.predict(input)

92. Example: Decision Trees
Again inspiration from functional programming:
type Input = Map.Map String String
data Tree = Predict Bool
| Subtrees String (Map.Map String Tree)
look at the "beer" entry
a map from each possible
"beer" value to a subtree
always predict a specific value

93. Example: Decision Trees
type Input = Map.Map String String
data Tree = Predict Bool
| Subtrees String (Map.Map String Tree)
predict :: Tree -> Input -> Bool
predict (Predict b) _ = b
predict (Subtrees a subtrees) input =
predict subtree input
where subtree = subtrees Map.! (input Map.!

94. Example: Decision Trees
type Input = Map.Map String String
data Tree = Predict Bool
| Subtrees String (Map.Map String Tree)
We can do the same,
we'll say a decision tree is either
True
False
(attribute, subtree_dict)
("beer",
{ "free" : True,
"none" : False,
"paid" : ("speaker",
{...})})

95. predict :: Tree -> Input -> Bool
predict (Predict b) _ = b
predict (Subtrees a subtrees) input =
predict subtree input
where subtree = subtrees Map.! (input Map.! a)
Example: Decision Trees
def predict(tree, input_dict):
# leaf node predicts itself
if tree in (True, False):
return tree
else:
# destructure tree
attribute, subtree_dict = tree
# find appropriate subtree
value = input_dict[attribute]
subtree = subtree_dict[value]
# classify using subtree
return predict(subtree, input_dict)

96. Not Just For Data Science

97. In Conclusion
Teaching data science is fun, if you're smart
about it
Learning data science is fun, if you're smart
about it
Writing a book is not that much fun
Having written a book is pretty fun
Making slides is actually kind of fun
Functional programming is a lot of fun

98. Thanks!
@joelgrus
joelgrus@gmail.com
joelgrus.com