Why I Wrote the Book, D is for Data

If you haven’t heard the news, I’ve written a children’s book called “D is for Data – The ABCs of Data Analytics.” I wrote this book because I was looking for a way to share what I do at work with my kids. I have a long tradition of reading to my kids every night. I try to pick something above their level for two reasons. First, I know they’ll fall asleep faster. Second, I know that they’ll pick up some new vocabulary that they normally wouldn’t be exposed to.

Vocabulary is a very important part of breaking into any field. Data analytics is full of terms and jargon that can leave your head spinning. So, with this book I wanted to give my kids an advantage by hearing these terms early. I also wanted to ground these terms with an analogy that was relatable. For example, a computer model is difficult to explain, but kids build models out of legos all the time. The idea of a model being a smaller or simpler version of a bigger or more complex thing is pretty easy to grasp. And maybe in the not-so-distant future, someone will say, “I like building with Legos, I bet I could build a computer model too!”

The book will be available on October 1st. Tomorrow, I’ll share a little bit about how I made the book.