Some Numbers @DS -- Reflection on 4 (fast) months

by David Sánchez

Tempus fugit. One more day and the “in room training” at DS will be over. Ready to roam the world and put to good practice what we have been learning these four months. But before heading out, time for reflection: I am going to summarize these four months wiht four numbers based on a google form that I filled every night* and that may or may not be useful for next cohorts.

90%

This is the % of days that I have not taken Ibuprofen (or any other painkiller for that matter). For the longest time, my girlfriend has been telling me I take too much Ibuprofen. Maybe at previous stages in my life that assertion was true. I don’t know. What I know is that, moving forward, I have data to prove otherwise:

 

4.1

Espressos per day. I may have had something close to a dependence on coffee in the past. I certainly have experienced the withdrawal headaches. After a few weeks of complete coffee-abstinence in the summer, I have been consciously keeping my caffeine intake at low levels (at least compared to my previous self). Moderately successful in this effort.

7.9

In a scale of 1-10, 7.9 has been my average “Overall Happiness”. Every day I logged in my overall happiness, the overall satisfaction with “today’s work”, the time I arrive at work, when I left, whether or not I did anything work-related at home (in a very loose sense, from doing Alteryx challenges, to taking exams, going over some of the materials already covered or thinking about the project), as well as some comments when anything remarkable happened.

15

One of the things I have enjoyed about the “cage-experiment” (aka. classroom environment) is that it is really conducive to receiving feedback and help from the team.
Each day, I logged who I thought helped me the most that day. That is not to say that I did not receive help from other DSers that day, rather that, whatever the person did, I found it the most helpful at the time. From technical to design. From Tableau to Alteryx. From delivery to organization. Maybe it was something they said. Maybe it was something they did. Maybe it was something I am reusing that they built. 15 is my last number. For now.

Reflection

Fantastic time. Really happy of the decision of going to the Information Lab website, diving through all the team members and contacting Pablo (the only Spaniard at the time) to learn more about the Data School. Then Ravi, then the meet and greet –everybody telling the same consistent story about the company and their general experience. Andy does a great job at getting people excited, and also at training, delegating training, being mean in a funny way, and –something in my opinion crucial– selecting people that (at least in DS7) can work together quite nicely –willing to learn and willing to help.

I find the transition from doing bench research (aka. moving minutes amount of liquid from one clear plastic tube to another clear plastic tube) to working with data is not entirely smooth, but quite doable, especially in an environment so supportive. Glad to be here. Happy to go places now!

If you want to know more about the DS, feel free to contact me @dsmd4vid or LI.

 

*When I say ” based on a google form that I filled every night” it should be read as “based on a google form that I filled at night everynight I remembered to do it” –I receive an automatic email telling me to do so, but I don’t always comply… I also logged what I had for lunch, whether I biked to work or not (a bit), any exercise? (not much) and some other random facts that I have excluded from this overview.