Three Important Questions to Ask Yourself When Starting a Data Science Project

Focus your thinking to achieve your end goal

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Question 1 — Why do you want to learn data science?

The answer to that question is an essential tool for a beginner. It will sustain you through the rest of your learning journey. Your end goal will be the fuel to get you through all the times you struggle when your code breaks or you struggle to understand a difficult concept.

I first wanted to learn data science and coding because I couldn’t open an Excel file with more than 1,048,576 rows. I literally could not do my job if I didn’t learn how to code. That’s it.

My only goal was to open the entire dataset and see all the data. The goal was simple, straightforward, and had a tangible end product. If I could open and view the dataset somehow, that would be a huge success.

Question 2 — What is your end product?

The vision of your end product is essential — it guides you along your learning journey and allows you to tailor your learning to only skills that will help you reach your goal.

For example, if your end goal is to create a model that will predict the winner of the NCAA…