Conquest & Data Science

“Without Knowledge, Skill cannot be focused. Without Skill, Strength cannot be brought to bear and without Strength, Knowledge may not be applied.”

—Alexander The Great

Some 2,300 plus years ago, arguably the greatest world conqueror uttered the quote above.

There are many analogies that can be made with this quote and manifested through the art and practice of Data Science. Here, I will allow for a few analogies which first come to mind.

Knowledge: Knowledge can be gained first through experience in the industry, then through data science itself. If there is any sort of ultimate knowledge, it would seem that it would be that of the future. Within a certain level of probability, we can predict the future. In the hands of someone like Alexander, this would be seen as a tool from the heavens.

Skill: Skills specifically to data science we can think of skill as both technical skill and the skill to inspire action, as these are both valuable assets not just to a data scientist but also to a trusted advisor. It is worth noting that Aristotle was an advisor to young Alexander.

Strength: The technological strengths of robust networks and computational power (our troops, perhaps). In terms of leadership, strength comes from having both the means and confidence to act. So our strength comes from our resources and our leadership's confidence in using them.

If one can pardon the grandiosity of such an analogy, one might be bold enough to say that Data Science fills in for the progenitor of science itself, Aristotle. Bolder still, perhaps we say better than Aristotle, as Alexander and his advisor departed ways after only three years, in contrast, Data Science is like Wu-Tang Clan: forever. In both the original quote and within the analogies above, we sense the nonlinear relationships between knowledge, skill, and strength. The original quote can be reconciled as describing Alexander’s conquering of the known world. Yet, for the sake of this analogy, I will leave it up to the reader to decide what conquest is to be had.

As always, if you find this interesting or valuable, please like and share. Questions and comments are definitely encouraged (I will do my best to reply).

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