Show HN: Online Data Science Courses for $10

So its like statistics, except there may not be math or statistics. Depends heavily on the role.

The two definitely have intersections. Here is what's in DataScience \cap Statistics

1. A solid understanding of basic inferential statistics.

2. A healthy dose of skepticism about drawing conclusions from data.

3. The ability to model the problem and communicate how data fits into the model.

Here are the skills that most data scientists I know do NOT have but statisticians do.

1. A solid mathematical foundation of statistics: I am guessing because this stuff is only taught in graduate-level statistics classes, which most data scientists have never taken.

2. The research frontier of statistics, or the "what's new" of the statistics academia.

3. Coming up with new statistical methodologies (or discovering anything new and contributing to the foundation of statistics). This is not entirely true, but most data scientists I know are users of existing techniques/ideas.

Here are the skills that most statisticians I know do NOT have but data scientists do.

1. "Vocational" programming skills: most statisticians know R/Matlab, but many of them lack the experience of acquiring and cleaning data before doing analysis. I don't think this is a matter of ability but experience and lack of exposure.

2. Communicating statistical conclusions to non-statisticians: some of my statistician friends have a knack for this, but it is a skill that's hugely important for data scientists. People who want to be data-driven and ask for statistical conclusions far outnumber people who can actually understand statistical subtleties, and almost by survivors' bias, all data scientists I know are excellent at getting their conclusions across the organization even if others do not fully understand the full ramificaiton.

[0] "Am I data scientist?" http://robjhyndman.com/hyndsight/am-i-a-data-scientist/