I believe this is an important 'skill' that every Data Scientist should have. Sometimes when working on projects, and you get stuck haven tried all you know to do, then TAKE A BREAK. I've seen this work a lot of times. Coding is mentally demanding, so sometimes, the brain needs to relax and refresh.

I actually think that 'taking a break' when needed is a 'skill' that should be included on a resume. So incase you are reading this, and you have a project at hand and you've tried all, maybe you take an evening off, see a movie and let your brain relax and refresh and then try again.

I get asked the question 'how can I start the journey of being a data scientist'? My response is often to state how I started.

First, I started by taking courses online with dataquest and coursera. One thing is after you must have started learning on this online platform you not only learn new things but begin to see the extent of the things you don't know and how you can learn them. These platforms are also flexible and you can learn at your own pace. One thing with learning online though, is, you really must be interested in the topic for you to gain anything from it.

After I completed all the tracks on dataquest, and did enough courses on coursera. I started participating in kaggle competitions, and building machine learning projects. I wanted to have a taste of something advanced while also gaining some industry experience with real data, so I decided to attend Data Science Retreat (DSR), Berlin. The extra I got for attending DSR, Berlin was the large community of data scientist I got to be part of, something I wouldn't have been able to pay for.

Maybe, since I am a Mathematics graduate I have the background for it but possibly this approach works for someone else. And If you need to pay, pay! It's an investment in yourself.

For my friends in Nigeria, start by:

1. take courses online - dataquest, coursera, datacamp etc. and don't forget to do try ons, on kaggle etc. (and pay if you need to!, it's an investment in yourself)

2. Attend courses, I know Data Science Nigeria, Utiva, Dataleum all teach about data analysis or data science. Read through their course curriculum, your knowledge from courses online will help you know if they are right for you or not.

3. Connect with an AI community, you will need it.

Let me give some Monday evening advice 😆.

1. Always write CLEAN codes. What makes a code clean? For me,it is when you keep it as short as possible and you add a note to explain what are you are doing, when it might not be clear. It helps everyone to understand your thought process without stress.

I actually find out that, when I don't do this, I'm the who actually suffers for it later on. It happens that when I go back to the codes, I'm lost myself as to what I was doing/thinking back then.

2. Don't wait till you want to push your scripts to Git before adding a "README" file, add it at the beginning and edit it as you work. It makes it easier for you at the end.

What are your own recommended practices.