Why I Write About Data Science
The 6 benefits of writing data science articles
Today marks one year since I posted my first data science article on Medium. It did surprisingly well and that initial success gave me a lot of motivation. I’ve posted 11 other articles since. Unfortunately, it became obvious I’d fallen victim to a bit of beginner's luck when the others did not do as well. Even so, I’ve still managed to write and post articles consistently. This is because I am not only motivated by views but also by the many other benefits of writing.
Learn and improve technical skills
The first benefit is that it has helped me to learn more about data science. When you leave university you lose all structure and you have to take your education into your own hands. Writing articles is my way of doing this. Whether I want to learn some new theory or how to apply a python framework, I use an article as a kind of goal. It gives me some much-needed direction when learning new concepts.
And, I mean really learn! It is one thing to read and apply concepts; it is another to explain them. When you try to put your ideas into writing you realize all the holes in your understanding. I often find I have to go back and try to properly understand a concept before I can put it into words. Ultimately, articles provide both a direction to learning and a check on my understanding.
Improve communication skills
When joining the working world, one of the first things you will realize is that communications skills are incredibly important. They are often overlooked in STEM degrees. You may learn to code but not how to explain how the code works. In reality, you have to do this all the time. To make things worse, the people who you are trying to explain it to often do not have technical backgrounds. Displaying coding or giving mathematical functions will not cut it.
Similarly, when I write I want to reach the largest audience possible. These people are not necessarily experts in machine learning but those who are still learning. Whether it…
