My newest obsession: data science

I have a new obsession these days: data science. And, apparently, while I may be a little behind the bandwagon, I'm not the only one completely fascinated by it.

When Google Chief Economist Hal Varian told the New York Times that the “sexy job” in the next decade is statisticians, he wasn’t kidding. Data scientists are becoming increasingly important now that we can track the bazillions of ways people interact with one another on mobile and the Web.

In fact, companies like Google, Facebook and LinkedIn seriously have teams of data scientists who analyze EVERY. BIT. OF. INFORMATION. that comes in. They interpret these massive amounts of data to learn about their users, and ultimately, to acquire and retain more users. (If you've ever wondered why they're wildly successful, this is one of the reasons.)
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