There was a time, not too long ago, when I heard predictions that learning to code would become part of a basic education, just like reading and writing. We haven’t reached that point yet; though it’s certainly true that more kids these days grow up with some programming exposure.
I’m wondering if we’re going to see a similar trajectory with analyzing data.
Apparently 90% of the world’s data has been created in the past two years. We’re gleaning more insight from numbers, leading to more innovation and improved decision-making. Consequently, more people will be needed to perform data analysis, and more people will need to understand it.
Being able to interpret a chart or graph, recognizing the trap of a small sample size, and knowing the difference between correlation and causation used to be an ability of the specialist. Now they’re necessary skills to deal with changes that are already here.