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5 Reasons Why Every Data Scientist Should Blog

Explaining something gives you a deeper understanding of it.

Photo by NeONBRAND on Unsplash
Photo by NeONBRAND on Unsplash

Data Science is one of the widely popular fields today, so many people consider joining the field every day. And those in the field are always seeking to expand their knowledge, strengthen their portfolios and connect with similar minded people.

When you’re a part of a fast-advancing field like data science, where there is always something new to be learned, implemented, and analyzed, then your learning journey is never really over. That’s one of the main advantages of the field; it challenges you intellectually and keeps you in a state of continuous learning and growing.

Because of that, you will find yourself always in the process of learning new things, new algorithms, new aspects, or new Programming languages. Sometimes, keeping track of all this new information can get overwhelming.

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Along your learning journey and career, you will most often develop activities to cope with this overwhelming amount of information. In this article, I will share my way of coping with being overwhelmed, which is blogging.

Blogging helped me a lot during the past year; that’s why I thought I would share with you 5 reasons why I think every data scientist should have a blog.

Documenting your journey

Data science is a vast field; there are so many sub-fields you can specialize in. And so, there is various knowledge you need to gain. Getting from a complete beginner to an expert in any field or from one sub-field to another is a learning journey. A journey that doesn’t have a set time, you go at it at your own pace.

Every block along your way is based on your knowledge of some other smaller blocks, so, to get to the end, to your goal, you need to keep track of all the blocks you passed on the way.

Writing blog posts about the small species of knowledge you come across will make it easier for you to have a log of all the information you learned, so you can easily go back to them before you proceed to the next step.

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Deepen and demonstrate your knowledge.

As you start documenting your learning journey by writing blog posts about your knowledge, you will find your knowledge getting deeper as you do so. It is well-known that if you could explain a concept easily and clearly, you fully understand this concept’s working mechanism.

Not just that, writing blog posts about the concepts you learn will give you a record that you can always refer back to in case you forgot some of the small mechanisms of some concepts as you learn more complex and advanced terms. It’s always good to go back to the basics and ensure your foundation is solid. It’s even better if you’re the one who recorded these basics.

Moreover, writing blog posts proves your knowledge; it proves that you’re familiar with the concepts and know how they connect to the bigger picture.

Improve your communications skills

Practicing a skill makes you perfect it, or at least, makes you better at it. If you continuously write posts explaining complex terms and algorithms that are often not very easy to explain, your communication skills will get better and better with every post.

You will find new ways to explain concepts to make them easier to understand for others who will read the article. Thinking of new ways to explain complex concepts will require you to fully understand that concept, which also connects to the previous reason.

Good communication is one of the essential skills of a successful data scientist, so by blogging, you’re working on improving your communication and leadership skills.

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A good addition to your portfolio

When you start writing blog posts, you start building an audience, people who find your way of writing and explaining concepts clear, concise, and appealing. As your audience grow, you will be known in the field; your name will be associated with good communication and clear posts.

Then, when you decide to apply for jobs, change careers or start your own company, you will have proof of knowledge and capabilities that make your portfolio stand among other data scientists.

Developers are known for being good at their profession yet, bad at explaining it. Having a blog with some following demonstrates with no doubt that you don’t only know your stuff, you’re also good at communicating it. That by itself is an item that will take your portfolio to the next level.

Connect to the community

Since data science doesn’t necessarily require a degree, you don’t need to go to a class or a school to learn the needed skills to start your career. And in the state of the world now, learning something new at home can feel lonely. Writing blog posts is a way for you to connect with other people going on the same journey.

Not just that, even after you have a job, blogging can be your way of connecting with others working on similar projects as you, sharing your experience and knowledge with them.

Finally, I bet that you read so many articles written by others when you needed to learn something, writing blogs could be your way of giving back to the community, helping to grow it bigger and better.

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Final thoughts

We all have our ways to cope with stress, with being overwhelmed or just tired. When we are in a continuous state of learning, working, and trying to keep the balance in our lives, we need something that helps ease up the learning process to focus on other aspects of our lives and hopefully maintain a healthy balance.

As data scientists, we are fully aware that data science is a non-ending field, that new advances and new techniques are the norms of the field, and a part of our job is to keep up with these advances and make sure to utilize them to keep our work up-to-date.

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One way to release stress, avoid being overwhelmed, keep track of the knowledge you learned, and polish your resume, is by writing technical blogs. In this article, I presented you with 5 reasons you, as a data scientist or a developer, should consider adding blogging to your routine and how it could greatly benefit your career and mental health.

I leave you with this; you don’t need to be a professional writer to start blogging. You don’t even need to understand a topic to blog about fully; you will realize that you have a better understanding of it when you try to explain it in your blogs. All you need to have to start blogging is just to go ahead and write your first blog.


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