This book was adapted

from the talk given by the

author at TEDxForbesPark
on March 25, 2017.
3
 Table of Contents
Introduction ..............6

1. See Data Everywhere ..............7

2. Test Hypotheses ............10

3. Be Intellectually Humble ............13

Afterword ............17

About the Author/Illustrator ............18

4
5
 Introduction
As a data scientist, I currently work with companies and
organizationslarge and small, across different industries, and on
different applicationswith the common goal of creating solutions
powered by data.

Data scientists are highly sought afterboth here and abroadand

the demand is only expected to keep growing. Our work is at the
core of the success of Internet giants like Google, Facebook, Amazon,
and Netflix, and is driving innovation across different sectors
manufacturing, finance, energy generation and distribution,
transportation and logistics, human resourcesaffecting even fields
like fashion and sports.

With the massive amounts of data now being collected through mobile
phones, wearables, and various kinds of sensors, and the computing
power now available to process all these data, data scientists turn raw
data into valuable insights and develop creative and robust solutions.

Unfortunately, it is not possible to train anyone to become a data

scientist in the course of this slim volume. I would if I could. My own
training came by way of graduate school in the field of astrophysics.
As part of my doctoral research, I processed and analyzed data from
hundreds of thousands of galaxies to answer questions about our
Universe. As with any specialized field of expertise, it takes years
they say 10,000 hoursto learn and master.

The good news is that you do not need to become a data scientist to
reap the benefits of having a data scientist mindset. Just like anyone
can get the benefits of putting on a startup hat or a designer hat,
you, too, can put on a data scientist hatand Im here to show you
how to start!

6
7
 See Data Everywhere
Data is the New Oil
The power of data science comes from the data. It is considered the
new oil, convertible into insights and value via the engine of data
science.

Social media has become a part of almost everyones everyday life. It

produces so-called Big Data with high velocity, volume, and variety.
Users passionately produceand platforms obsessively collect
massive amounts of user-generated data every second of every day.

As you read this, millions of Facebook statuses, Instagram photos,

Twitter posts are being created, viewed, liked, and shared. By profiling
the personalities and preferences of people from this personal data,
marketers are able to tailor and target ads to effectively sell products,
as well as political campaigns.

But data does not have to be big to be valuable. Here, I also want
to open your eyes to learn to see data everywhere you lookwhether
online or offline. Every interaction with a customer is a data point
in fact, a rich number of data points: Who is the customer? What
happened? When did it happen? Who did it happen with? How long
did it take? What was the outcome in the short-term? How about in
the long-term? And so on.

Most single interactions may not matter too much, but taking
everything together in aggregate and finding patterns can yield
valuable insights that wouldnt have been obvious otherwise. Putting
on a data scientist hat, you can decide which data points are important
and worthwhile to captureand what questions and decision points
this data can help answer.

8
9
10
11
 Test Hypotheses
The World is Your Lab
Data is valuable because it comes from a real-world experiment. In
the lab, we can do controlled experimentsin fact, that is the heart
of the scientific method.

You may remember this simple experiment for elementary class. You
take two monggo (mung bean) plants, place one under the sun and
the other under shade. You wait a week and measure the height of the
monggo plants. You find that the plant exposed to the sun grew more,
so conclude that exposure to sunlight makes plants grow faster.

The key to the experiment is that you kept everything fixedsame

soil, same pot, same type of monggo seed our so-called control
variables except for oneour experimental variable. We can then
say that the only thing that was different, the plants exposure to
sunlight, caused the difference in the plants growth. More than that,
we can quantify the size of the effect by measuring the difference
between the heights of the plants.

In the real world, especially in business, everything is dynamic and

always changing. Most of the time, it is not possible to run controlled
experiments like in the lab, but the framework still applies.

In the lab, you can go step-by-step:

1. Develop your hypothesis.
2. Design and do your experiment.
3. Collect and analyze data and make conclusions from the results.

In business, the steps may not go precisely in this order, but they are
the same:
1. Develop your hypothesis.
2. Set up data collection and run your real-world experiment.
3. Analyze the data and make conclusions from the results.

Rinse and repeat!

12
13
 Be Intellectually Humble
Dont follow the HiPPO
Most of the time, we carry around a lot of things we know. If you take
a step back to consider them, though, you will realize that most of
the things you know are simply assumptions that you have. Here,
I propose that these assumptions are better thought of as hypotheses
to be testedagain and again.

To cultivate this radical mental attitude is to develop and master

intellectual humility. To obtain this, you must work hard to learn to
begin with not-knowing, stay with not-knowing, and be comfortable
with not-knowing.

Scientists get intensive training in developing this mental attitude. In

our research, we learn to live with questions that have no answers. We
learn to hold judgment until careful study and we recognize that no
answers are ever final. Established theorieseven Einsteinsmust
be tested and tested again.

In business, you are constantly faced with the question of how

something should be done. Often, something is done the way it is
because that has been the way it has always been done. Sometimes, it
is done because it is the HiPPOthe Highest Paid Persons Opinion.

For the intellectually humble, there is a better way to decide. Ground

yourself with data and tested hypotheses, make timely decisions, and
repeat the processagain and again.

14
15
 01000100
01000001
01010100
01000001

16
 Afterword
Not everyone will become data scientists, but I believe that anyone
can learn to think like one.

Learn to see data in everything your business touches. Get into the
habit of creating and testing hypotheses. Soon enough, you will have
what it takes to work successfully with data scientists and get the
most out of the collaboration.

Finally, it is my hope that you can be intellectually humble enough

to ask the question: What does the data say? and actually listen to
the answer.

You know your business best, so go ahead and put on a data scientist
hat and find out where it leads!

17
 About
the
Aut hor
Photo credit: Patrick Rivera

Reina Reyes, Ph.D. is a data scientist practicing in Manila,

serving as Analytics Adviser for Z-Lift Solutions, Inc. and
Data Scientist at Deal Grocer, Inc. She has a Bachelors
Degree in Physics from Ateneo de Manila University,
Diploma in High Energy Physics from Abdus Salam Institute
for Theoretical Physics, and a Ph.D. in Astrophysics from
Princeton University.

She shares her passion and knowledge for data where she
can"inside the classroom" as a lecturer at the Department
of Information Systems and Computer Science in Ateneo de
Manila University and "outside the classroom" through her
public DIY Data Workshops.

For more about her work, you may visit:

www.reinareyes.com.

For more about the workshops, please visit:

www.fb.me/diydataworkshops.

18
 About
the
Illustrator
Kaira del Rosario is a current super-senior majoring in Computer
Science at the Ateneo de Manila University. She specializes in
front-end web development and design. When she isnt on her
computer, she can be found sketching or painting.

19