Fall semester ends – Half master

The fall semester of my masters course ended a few days ago taking with them a couple of courses that definitely helped me learn more. They also helped me gain an understanding of what I don’t know and thereby did more good than they were supposed to.

In one of my previous posts I was supposed to write about Andy’s talks and what I liked about it.

To begin with, Andy is a tableau zen master for this year and works at ‘The Information Lab’ which is situated in London. Out of the various aspects of his talk, two points really stuck with me and something I’d implement if I can, in the future situations.

1. Presentation
His presentation was the kind that was not overloaded with information and instead, it was made to hold the viewer’s attention at the max possible level. And I daresay it did its job very well. Also, he did not really care about how serious/official the presentation should be and what kind of formatting should go into it. That is what helped him all the more in delivering his points across as he was more focused on story during the deck than its cosmetics.

2. Interview process he takes
In his previous firm (if I am not wrong) and the current place of work – The Information Lab, the itnerviews for prospective candidatestake place in a fashion that I really like. Interested folks are asked to send in their applications along with a piece of work as a sample showcasing their skills and passion. You often want to hire individuals with both these because the ones having both these qualities rarely apply to all places. This stuck with me and I would really like to part of an org which does interviews like these because the platform they are providing and the thought itself show how foreward thinking they are towards hiring not any individual but only those who exactly fit their requirement of skill and passion levels. You don’t have to be a genius to get into these places, but you sure as hell should be ready to keep improving your skill with hard work. And that indeed is a rare quality.

So, these two aspects of his talk stayed with me since then and am not going to forget them anytime soon.

Regarding data visualisation course, that was offered here at the fall semester for me, the most important outcome that I gained out of the course was that I can now understand what an user is trying to convey using any form of visual (need not necessarily be a tableau dashboard but any form of visual). And I am able to form a picture in my mind about how well this visual has been made in terms of getting the message across in the most simplest way possible. It is often a difficult task to do so, as most of us while making the visuals either have lost the idea of the exact message it is trying to convey or are too engrossed into the minute details that when stitched together, the visual looks like a piece of art rather than solving its purpose of getting across a story/message.

I think this quality would stay with me throughout my life and I will be able to critique and/or appreciate all forms of visualisations that I will come across in any presentations from now on be it in class/company/public forums. In addition to this, the course also helped me gain the basics in tableau. It is of no use complaining I could not get good at tableau with the help of this course. A good teacher always teaches you the design and the way you implement this design depends on your ingenuity. He cannot teach that, it is your thought process that makes you ingenuine with your work outputs. I am thankful I got to learn from such a distinguished individual (Prof. Jeff Shaffer – tableau zen master for 2016 and also a close friend of Andy about whose talk I have discussed above). Both of these folks are really active in the dat avisualisation community and they are trying some amazing stuff pushing the limits of their work. Also, what adds to this is the way in which tableau responds to the feedback of its users. I am yet to come across a software/tool/platform whose updates are so relevant to the user requirements and needs whichw ere not fulfilled in the previous versions but would make really valuable additions to the updated versions.

The fall semester end update ends thus.

Books – November 2015

I have been going through multiple books over the last month and will continue to do so this month too. The list is as follows:

Seveneves – The book continues, wherein the people on earth are now finally completely aware of what is going to happen in the near future and are prepping those in the space station for the same. To be frank, I am not sure I will be able to finish this book in the near future. Dec 21 is the return date for this one and with other books that I have lined up, one of this length doesn’t stand as a favorite. Mr. Stephenson needs to write shorter books. Reamde also remains as one of those very few books I abandoned in the middle (I either don’t pick them up or leave them within 20 pages into the book as I get an idea that they don’t match my taste)

Deadhouse Gates – Interesting read, my favorite among these here. Mr. Erikson knows how to write and more pleasingly, he seems to be able to seamlessly integrate the stories of the old characters while introducing new characters to us. I had read the first book not on my kindle and could actually go back to the maps whenever I was trying to get a feel of the geographical movements of the characters. This one however, I am reading on kindle and am missing that point of view of how characters are moving from place to place (especially Fiddler and Kalam, for those of you who understand what I am talking about) and also given the fact that there is a good enough chance that all characters might be meeting at a common place later in the book. With multiple assignments and exams going on hand in hand along with my attempts to re-design government visualizations, it is going to be a toughie to finish this one this month. But am glad I started this series and am very much looking forward to all the books and am pretty much sure that it would be nearly a year or two before I finish the entire series and finish them I will!

The Shadow of the Wind – I have decided to go through this, just for the beauty of it. I don’t think I have to say anything about it, it is one of the most exquisitely written books ever. The words flow like a majestic stream and the translator did a job of the highest order.

The Sultan’s seal – This is the final book on the list. It is one that I entirely chanced upon during my usual Thursday checkout of the latest arrivals in the library (they are lent to us only for three weeks instead of the default length of entire semester, hence provide some kind of challenge to finish them up or face a fine). I had heard of the author as one with an appreciable sense of humor and that the translator he had gotten was also very respectable of what he was translating and was mindful of the spirit of the original work. This can easily be seen at the beginning of the book where the translator actually outlines his thoughts about this translation work. Regarding the book, it has been a mixed ride so far, the writing is ok-ish but it definitely gives glimpses of the thoughts of a middle-eastern author(s) whose works I have admittedly read very few (Arabian nights is the closest I have gotten and also Italo Calvino’s works which I always thought were more impressive versions of a few Arabian nights stories).

With finals coming up in December and some admittedly busy times ahead, I am not sure how many of these I would do justice to, but these books make up an interesting line-up to lure me back to them on those (possibly) lull weekends.

Out of Eden Walk

Of the many idiosyncrasies that define me as a person/individual, one of the most evident is the want to share anything good that I come across, with those around me, those not around me. But I often realize that there aren’t many who would appreciate what I want to show them (I am not saying that is good or bad – people differ, perspectives differ). Most of these ‘good things’ are articles/posts/pictures that I come across online and others are information that I learn from a book that I just finished reading, or a discussion that I want to have.

“Out of Eden walk” is one such thing that I would like to share to all those around me. It is one of the most amazing projects- or rather – ideas that I have had the luck to come across in the past few years. What I have come to understand over time is that – in order to appreciate an idea or an activity, your perspective needs to be aligned with that activity or the ideology. Without this, true appreciation is not possible and whatever your understanding of the idea/action only transitory and inadequate. This understanding has helped me to be non-judgmental (oh yes!) in numerous scenarios and when I have gone back to them after some time, I indeed have been able to look at them with a view that is wider in its scope and understanding and ability of perception. I have digressed a lot from the topic of this post already, so I would stop my random rumblings here.

“Out of Eden walk” is a walk that a journalist ‘Paul Salopek’ is undertaking. From an article on livemint (published  here), the walk can be described as:

It is a long, audacious and wondrous journey. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Paul Salopek is following what experts broadly believe is the trail followed by the first human migration out of Africa—the path traced roughly 60,000 years ago when we left the cradle of our origin and began to spread across the planet.

More about the walk can be found at these two websites –

http://outofedenwalk.nationalgeographic.com/

http://www.outofedenwalk.com/

Although the above site covers almost everything you would like to know about the walk, here are a few more interesting links that might be of interest:

http://pulitzercenter.org/projects/out-of-eden

https://instagram.com/outofedenwalk/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/22/paul-salopek-out-of-eden_n_4324375.html

I want to share more of my thoughts about this, but I should be moving. I hope to return to this in one of my upcoming posts.

P.S: On a similar note, there is another journalist who collects her experiences and posts them on the web – notably on the social media. Please note that I have called these her ‘experiences’. This is because, she often attaches a story to every post (most of them pictures – and she is an amazing photographer) which makes you connect with what the picture is trying to convey in a much better way.

Here are the links to her work and related websites (I especially like her Instagram feed – some amazing pictures interspersed with brilliant storytelling):

River diaries – http://riverdiaries.tumblr.com/

Instagram feed – https://instagram.com/aratikumarrao/?hl=en

Her twitter feed – https://twitter.com/AratiKumarRao

http://www.ficusmedia.com/

 

Upcoming posts

It is humorous (in a sardonic way) that I am writing a post about my upcoming blog posts. Anyway, below is the list of topics I intend to blog about in my upcoming posts. For the sake of book keeping, I will be updating this post once I tick off an item from this list.

1. Business Intelligence Symposium – Part 1 (some thoughts on the event and other points discussed there) – Done Link to the post
2. Business Intelligence Symposium – Part 2 ( On ‘The Informationlab’ – its hiring process, and how such a system inspires the passionate ones) – Link to the post
3. Notes from data visualisation class – About what I learnt from what according to me was the best class this FALL – Link to the post
4. Thoughts on fall courses at the program I am currently studying
5. My attempts at storytelling using Tableau

Updates:

12 Dec – Added the links to posts for 2,3. I combined them into a single post. I am not really sure if I would be adding 4,5 anytime soon. Though something will come up for 5 as I have some vizzes that I am currently working on.

Business Intelligence symposium – Part 1

I attended the Business Intelligence symposium at the University of Cincinnati business center (more Info here). There were three sessions in the symposium:

 

1. 84.51 explaining how they were structuring their analytics development program to meet the needs of the growing analytics market
2. Andy Kriebel on what are the fine lines that differentiate a good analyst from a great analyst. He also gave us a glimpse of his workplace (The Informationlab – http://www.theinformationlab.co.uk/) – More about this in a future post, as I was particularly fascinated by this part of his presentation.
3. Procter and Gamble

 

I should say I particularly liked the session of Andy the most. For starters, his presentation was amazing. And by amazing I mean, not even for a moment you thought of anything to complain about the powerpoint deck he made. No extra text, no unnecessary colors, correctly driving the story, brilliant sync between the horizontal and vertical logic of the presentation. So much so that one of the beginning slides was Rachel (of F.R.I.E.N.D.S fame) showing the middle finger from a movie I like – The office space (go watch it if you haven’t already).

 

Moving on, some of the points he focussed were indeed what an aspiring analyst should be thinking about if he wants to be a great data analyst (or atleast if he wants to very good at what he does). The points are as follows:

 

A good analyst is

• not a yes man
• knows basic coding
• has good business acumen
• knows basic stats

 

A great analyst on the other hand

• understands the story behind the data
• is interested in what he/she does (don’t think of it as a job)
• is curious and imaginative
• understands the context
• builds good visualisations and tells great story from them
• can decipher the message
• is methodical
• can spot trends and themes
• is a great story teller

 

All the above points completely resonate with anyone who is passionate about analytics. These are also the points that were particularly stressed upon in my ex-company. Although many often fail to understand these in the context of solving an analytical problem and just try to finish their job, be done with it and go home for the day.

 

One point missing from the above for me was about identifying the patterns in the problems themselves and leveraging the solution of one or more previously solved problems in their company.

 

Understanding the interconnectivity of the problems is according to me an important aspect going forward as you keep on adding to the list of problems you have already solved using analytics. Not being able to do so will not only possibly lead to a suboptimal solution to the current problem at hand, but also might rob you of the opportunity to think about what other problems can be solved due to the solution of the current problem at hand. Both these aspects not only improve decision making in the companies but also have an immense impact on their attitude towards tackling future problems.

 

Treating any analytics project as a standalone entity is one of the major negatives currently in the analytics market as per my understanding. Another negative which I would try to talk about in a different post here is – the ability to reject/change the solution which you are trying to find for the problem at hand.

 

What I essentially mean by that is – often we get a problem to solve, and depending on the company we are a part of or the processes we follow, we set about solving that problem. In doing so, we already have an idea of the kind of solution that might be waiting for us at the end of this project. But, how many of the analysts out there have the ability, rather the courage to look back at what they have done, take a pause and think if they need to rethink about the solution they have been chasing. I have more thoughts on this which I will try to put together in one of my future posts.

Masters in Analytics – Aug 2015 update

I have begun to pursue masters in Analytics starting this fall semesters in Ohio, United States.

There are various courses including statistics – techniques and tools, data visualisation and some probability. I was thinking about using this blog as a medium to post my ideas and thoughts on the course lectures and also any of the other stuff that I am working on.

Malazan and Metamorphosis

Off late, I have been trying to work on a certain call volume forecasting project which has gotten me into reading up on ARIMA and ARIMAX and for once I understand them more than as a abbreviations.

I have also been looking into interesting articles around the web as is the case most of the times and have come across this interesting novel with glowing recommendations (not from me)

The name of the novel is – Metamorphosis of a Prime Intellect

Here is the link – Metamorphosis of a Prime Intellect

Also, I have started reading the fantasy series ‘Malazan’. The book 1 (Gardens of the moon) is currently on my reading-now shelf. I like the author’s writing style, especially the fact that there is a lot that we have to figure it ourselves. Not sure by when would I be finishing all the ten books in the series but for now I am going to stick with it.

Other updates include a change in my job. Hope to share the updates soon 🙂

Jun2015-Updates

The past few months have been exciting in working on various projects along the lines of a fitness club, financial services provider and an insurance provider.

The vast array of problems have been really helpful in increasing the scope of my understanding and improving the skillset that I possess

New technologies learnt include – Julia and D3. I am not a fan of D3 (Data driven documents) I should say as the purpose seems to be a polished VBA, though I know that is a major understatement. The various added functionalities in terms of connecting to a server and realtime refresing of a D3 document/dashboard are enticing concepts indeed. But for now, I would stay away from D3 though might venture back to it in the future. One aspect for which I am thankful to have been exposed to D3 is that it required me to learn about HTML and CSS which I must say was an interesting experience.

On the reading side, haven’t been able to get much reading done. Some of the books include ‘Everybody loves a good drought’, an eye opener regarding the plight of poor Indians int he villages whose names nobody ever hears. Another book I tried reading was ‘India shaastra’ by Mr.Tharoor but unfortunately my schedule didn’t permit me to finish it. ‘Sacred Games’ is another of my current reads that I definitely would recommend for someone who loves novels having a scope similar to that of ‘Shantaram’.

Also finished reading as many articles of Rohit Brijnath as I could scavenge from the depths of the internet history of last decade and half. He is a magician when it comes to using words to describe anything or anyone in sports. Can read his articles time and again without ever getting bored, planning to write a post here on his articles soon, hoping I would get to do that at some point of time

There might be a few changes with respect to career path regarding which I would update as and when it happens

3rd anniversary of my blog

Almost a year ago, I made this post :

2nd anniversary of my blog

It was about my blog completing its second anniversary and my promises of more posts to come. Funny that I made only two posts since that ( one about the wildlife documentaries I had just watched before writing that post and the other about a poem by HC Wotton).

No math for one year!. Exactly!. NO MATH FOR ONE YEAR. That is what this blog has been screaming at me whenever I have opened it. I have decided to devote more attention on this from now.

Also, this month would mark the third anniversary of my blog. Some journey it has been! Would be definitely interesting to pen my thoughts on what has been happening for the past year in and around me. I think I will get down to it sometime soon.

Of a poem

Poems. Few words conveying a galore of thoughts in a way that only few would appreciate and connect with. I feel, to understand a poem, rather, to understand the poet’s thinking while he was penning those lines, one needs to read the lines not as a mere statements but something more than that.

One of the few poems that has stayed with me since a long time is ‘ The Character of a Happy life’ by Sir H C Wotton

It goes like this :

How happy is he born or taught,
That serveth not another’s will;
Whose armour is his honest thought,
And simple truth his highest skill;

Whose passions not his masters are;
Whose soul is still prepar’d for death
Untied unto the world with care
Of princes’ grace or vulgar breath;

Who envies none whom chance doth raise,
Or vice; who never understood
The deepest wounds are given by praise,
By rule of state, but not of good;

Who hath his life from rumours freed;
Whose conscience is his strong retreat;
Whose state can neither flatterers feed,
Nor ruins make accusers great;

Who God doth late and early pray,
More of his grace than goods to send,
And entertains the harmless day
With a well-chosen book or friend.

This man is free from servile bands
Of hope to rise or fear to fall;
Lord of himself, though not of lands;
And having nothing, yet hath all.

The most influential lines of these poem are the last two lines of the first paragraph;

Whose armour is his honest thought,
And simple truth his highest skill;

What they convey can only be understood when one is able to comprehend what the phrases ‘honest thought’ and ‘simple truth’ mean. Am sure we all have our own ways of defining or explaining these phrases but essentially they should lead us to the essence of these phrases all the same.

Anyway, just thought I should make an entry about the poem that has been my inspiration for such a long time. Hence, this post. Would may be that I might come back one day and speak more about these two phrases. But, for now, this is this.