Uncommon Life Advice By Leading Data Scientists
By: Frederik Bussler
Tags: Inspiration, Self Development, Advice, Life Advice, Career Advice

Uncommon Life Advice By Leading Data Scientists

Dream in years, plan in months, evaluate in weeks, ship daily.

Photo by Kristina Paparo on Unsplash

The only thing worse than bad life advice is cliché life advice. Sleep for 8 hours. Workout. Eat healthily. Read.

As if hearing these tips for the 99th time would make you successful.

Working at a data science company, I know that most data scientists take a very logical, yet creative approach to life. So, instead of looking to billionaires or celebrities, I looked to leading data scientists like DJ Patil and Andrew Ng.

While you read this, think of other wisdom that’s underrated.

1. Deliver something every day, while staying focused on your vision.

DJ Patil — a co-creator of the term “data scientist” and Former U.S. Chief Data Scientist — has a time-stepped approach to getting things done:

“Dream in years, plan in months, evaluate in weeks, ship daily.”

While he’s talking directly to data scientists in the keynote below, “ship daily” applies to any field or goal, whether you’re a content creator, a software engineer, or want to run a marathon. Do something every day that gets you closer to your goal.

2. Start small and locally, then scale.

You can easily get swept up by ambition, with grandiose plans to bring an idea to the world.

However, if you want to impact the world, you have to start with small, local projects. If those work, you can scale:

“Once we’ve got the idea, let’s scale it from small neighborhoods to groups and neighborhoods to cities to states to countries and then the world.”

Of course, not all ideas will work the first time around:

“If our ideas don’t scale immediately — building things is hard sometimes — we have to go back to square one and try again.”

3. Think of the greater good.

Andrew Ng — accomplished AI researcher and founder of deeplearning.ai — suggests changing your focus to helping others.

When it’s all said and done, we’ll remember the impact we had, not our salaries or job titles. Fortunately, there are many ways to do “data science for good,” or make an impact in whatever field you’re in.

DJ Patil has similar advice. Recalling that his father helped create Silicon Valley, he will aim to follow in his footsteps and improve the nation.

This reminds me of a quote by former U.S. President John F. Kennedy:

“Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.”

While it may sound cliché, it has the potential to be life-changing advice. After all, the above quote not only rocketed JFK to a 75% approval rating, but inspired the nation and signaled hope for a better world in millions of people.

Today, we have more information, advice, and opportunity at our fingertips than our ancestors could have ever dreamed of. The advice is more sound than ever: Think of how you can use the incredible opportunities you have to help others.

4. Focus on decisions, not outcomes.

Data scientists recognize that life is all about probabilities. There’s nothing you can do to guarantee success, but there are things you can do to increase the probability that you’ll be successful.

Cassie Kozyrkov, Chief Decision Scientist at Google, discusses the phenomenon of “outcome bias,” where we tend to evaluate decisions based on what we learned after-the-fact.

For example, you might decide to read a book every day for a month, and you think there’s a high chance you’ll learn something useful. Unfortunately, you don’t end up gaining any major takeaways after one month, so you scrap the project. However, there’s still a high chance you’ll learn something useful — just as there was at the beginning of the month, so you shouldn’t give up.

In other words:

“Always evaluate decision quality based only on what was known at the time the decision was made.”

5. Take ownership.

Former data scientist at Squarespace, Conor Dewey, notes that if you want something to get done, you need to take ownership.

Taking responsibility is the key to success. This is the basic principle of the book Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win, but you don’t need to be a Data Scientist or a Navy SEAL to use it.

If you want to get fitter, smarter, richer, or happier, you need to take ownership, and not shirk responsibility.

Summary

In short: Instead of being a consumer, be a creator. Instead of being a taker, be a provider. Help others, day-by-day, and soon enough your greater ambitions will come to life.