Data Scientist Is A Deeply Misunderstood Term

The world we live in is increasingly data-driven and it’s a logical consequence that the number of data-related jobs has increased significantly over the past couple of years. One job role that seems to stand out from the crowd is that of the data scientist. Many consider the data scientist the summit of creation among the humans in data-related jobs, and a lot of people are trying to get their foot in the door of data science. But what exactly is a data scientist? In my opinion the term is misunderstood and misused.

Stock images by iAmMrRob and Tobias_ET (both Pixabay), combined by the author.

The science part is often missing

There’s the word ‘scientist’ in ‘data scientist’, which clearly indicates that what this person does qualifies as science. Quoting Wikipedia may be somewhat unoriginal, but they have a very nice definition:

“Science (from the Latin word scientia, meaning “knowledge”) is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe.”

Read that again: testable explanations and predictions. The formulation of theories, i.e., predictions about how things work, and the attempt to verify or falsify them is a core concept of science. Creating and constantly improving models of the world based on mathematical concepts, empirical data, and thought experiments, is…