Programming is a virtue

Many coworkers and colleagues have pointed me to a resource for learning data science which is the company DataCamp . After hearing so much about DataCamp, I decided to purchase the year subscription and check it out for myself. After spending a couple months working through the Python data scientist career track, I have found that I have mixed feelings about DataCamp. To start, I would like to begin with the things I really like about DataCamp. First, it has a complete career track in both of the most common programming languages used in data science: Python and R. These career tracks go over the basic syntax of each language and then dive into the useful tools for analysis, visualization, machine learning, deep learning, and network tools which will all be used by a data scientist. The program has a well thought out chronological path to learning data science in both languages. In the Python data scientist career track there are about 67 hours worth of material which includes i...

In my pursuit to become a machine learning engineer, I have noticed that most machine learning forums recommend learning Python. In order to make sure that I am brushed up on my basic Python skills, I ordered the book "Learning Python 3 the Hard Way" by Zed. A Shaw. While many of the early exercises are so basic even the most novice programmer could complete them, the second half of the book picked up the pace by giving more challenging exercises that involve object oriented programming, virtual environments, and  building a website using Python.  I would recommend this book to anyone who is either new to programming or needs to brush up on their Python skills. If you are experienced in programming, this book might only take you about a month to complete if you put an hour in a day. I didn't want to pay for the hard cover of the book so I bought if for Kindle on amazon.com where it is currently only $17.27. If you are new to programming, maybe you don't want to put...