If you’ve visited my blog before you’ll know that I see Excel as a valuable slice of the data analytics stack. In fact, I think it’s the best way to learn analytics. Another slice of that stack is programming languages, including Python. All signs point to Python ...

I’m a big fan of using art and drawings to clarify data problems and workflows. But in this case, let’s use them to conceal the identity of common data procedures, methods and more. Below you’ll find nine images; based on the figures and words in them, can ...

Have you attended a meetup or presentation related to my book Advancing into Analytics? Would you like to? I would love your feedback! Please let me know in the following form what you found most engaging and how your organization could benefit the most from the material. If you’d ...

I’m sure many readers got excited by the data science possibilities of the title. However, decision trees are more than statistical algorithms — in a broader sense they are any schematics used to help chart actions and consequences, whether probabilities are given or not. In this post, we’ll use ...

In 2011, Marc Andreesen claimed that software is eating the world. With hindsight, we can be more specific: Python is eating the world. The open source language is more popular than ever and sees no end in sight. While it may sound intimidating and like too much work to some analysts, ...

If you’re just getting started with building reports and other analyses in Excel using Python, it be can be confusing to see how all the steps and packages fit together. This post and accompanying visual is meant to map the basic process. If you’re not familiar with the ...

You can learn a lot about a book by reviewing its bibliography: often, an author’s biases and beliefs will be on full display there. I suppose that’s the same for me: if you list all the books I cited in Advancing into Analytics: From Excel to Python and ...

I remember when I first got into Python and heard about Anaconda. It wasn’t really clear to me if Anaconda was a “dialect” of Python code, a really awesome suite of tools for working with Python, or something else. Turns out that Anaconda is first and foremost a distribution ...

I remember my first days of coding R: I would search around for how to do X task, and find out that Y package would be really helpful. But that led to more questions: What are packages in the first place, and how do you use them? In this post, ...