I've always wanted to write a book. I have helped write 3 different deeply technical books (and one solutions manual), but I wanted something fun, interesting, and valuable.<p>So I wrote "Everyday Data Science" which is a collection of stories, tutorials, jokes, math, and code all written to inspire people to analyze their personal data.<p>In general, I was also inspired by the challenge to "make $100 online" which I have done in the past month since launching. It was daunting, and I felt quite vulnerable, but overall I'm pleased with what I've made.<p>I wrote up this quick post to give you an idea of the process I followed to write the book, and some of the content.<p>I'd love to know your thoughts and am open to (nice) feedback :)
@andrewnc<p>The book looks very intriguing! Before buying it, I wish I could read a bit more about what one could expect from the book. Let me explain :)<p>> This book is for people as untechnical as my Mom or as technical as my Applied Scientist friends working in big tech.<p>> ODEs On A Diet<p>Do you present an intuitive explanation of ODEs? Would both your mom and an Applied Scientist find it informative? If yes, I would love to read! A few pages from this chapter would really help in making a purchasing decision.<p>> a solution to Multi-Armed Bandit problems which are significantly more efficient and only takes a few lines of extra code.<p>Does the book include code samples? As someone wanting to learn about, e.g., ODEs through code, I would love it code samples were present in the book.<p>I understand that $7.99 is not a lot in the US, but it is not the case in a few other parts of the world. Given that there are no refunds, having more information about the book would be valuable for international customers.<p>BUT... the books looks great, and big congratulations on publishing it!
I added the book to Goodreads and forgot to add the cover! Ugh, and you can't edit a book unless you have "librarian status", whatever that is. But here's the link if anyone's interested: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57197718-everyday-data-science?ref=nav_sb_ss_3_19" rel="nofollow">https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57197718-everyday-data-s...</a>.
Nice! Real-world problems like these are what spurred my interest in statistics/data science, and I agree with your sentiment that intro stats books are a <i>terrible</i> way to cultivate enthusiasm and curiosity about ways to solve problems using data.<p>In my experience, the most difficult parts of the process are (1) translating from qualitative problems “in the field” to a formalized technical problem, and (2) all the wrangling necessary to implement the formal problem using field-collected data.<p>I find that I spend most of my time as a data scientist working on these parts of the process, and often don’t have the bandwidth or even requirement for more advanced methods. Not that fancy techniques are the goal, per se, but I do notice I rarely have the opportunity to use them.
This is kind of why I like fitness trackers (minus intrusive user tracking) and would like to see them ever expand into automated tracking of users' physiology, allong with simple seemless logging of experience (like hitting a button to log a headache, or some other minor symptom that might be nothing but months or years of trends might reveal an issue)<p>It reminds me of the problem of a car noise, but you bring it to a mechanic and it doesn't reproduce on the spot so diagnosis is extremely hard. In fact I've had a heart issue of this sort recently where I experience symptom intermittently, sometimes weeks or months apart. My cardiologist has brought me in multiple times for an EKG, but since itt not while I'm having the symptoms we have no idea if the normal EKG readings are telling an accurate story.<p>Essentially I want to see personal health devices like the black-box on an airplane. Take blood pressure, weight, and resting heart rate once a week? It goes to the black box. Log a physical symptom or mood? Goes to black box. Sleep and activity patterns, I integrated smart-watch EKG? Goes to black box.<p>I think the advent of truly seemless UI and UX with unobtrusive comfortable devices that could do this would provide a massive leap forward in preventative health.<p>We just need to get there in a way that doesn't make it one of the most massive land-grabs ever of personal data by device vendors.
It took me too long to find the purchase link. I eventually clicked on the picture of the book and that worked. I was looking for another buy link for too long though (really, only 20 seconds maybe, but that's probably too long).
This looks great but.... I’m not going to buy the paperback and I hate reading extended stuff on tablet/phone/laptop - I read books on kindle, kind to my eyes, distraction free, lightweight and comfortable.<p>Anything plans that address this?
Purchased a copy. Congrats on the book! Hoping to be able to use some of this to get some ideas on how to track some things to improve my health and possibly in some roundabout way for game design.
I've been looking for a book that balances technical rigor with real-world application, and more importantly, is fun to read. This looks promising - adding it to my reading list!
I just bought the pdf book.<p>My first two immediate impressions:
1) The handdrawn illustration thing is cutesy and cloy.
2) I've no idea why the line spacing is so massive. The word density per page feels like half a normal book.<p>Of course those are just superficial remarks, and I have barely read anything yet, but they both immediately annoyed me.<p>*the line spacing thing is annoying because it makes me feel like i'm constantly spinning the scroll wheel on my mouse more than actually reading the text.
On amazon it's marked as sold out, at least for me. Is that a fact or is that some market area thing?<p>If sold out, will it be available again soon?<p>Edit: refreshed and it's there again!
Congrats on this project. Reminds me of when I first read both 'Algorithms to Live by' and 'What If', books applying maths/science to everyday topics. Adding to my reading list!
Bought a copy on Amazon (it was $22 for the paperback version though), link for the lazy <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Everyday-Data-Science-Optimize-Your/dp/B08TZ1MT3W/" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/Everyday-Data-Science-Optimize-Your/d...</a>
It looks interesting. Since you say the book is for folks 'as untechnical as my Mom', I'll get a copy for my young niece that is trying to get into programming.<p>You have a minor typo on the page - 'enthrawled' should be 'enthralled'
Persperation needs to be perspiration - don't sweat, it's in your blog post not the book.<p>If you want the book reading for errors, I would be happy to do so.
Congratulations!!! great book.<p>Page 17 of the book:-<p>Fit: The process of showing data to a model to the model get better at explaining or predicting something.<p>seems like a typo