The Dataquest Download
Level up your data and AI skills, one newsletter at a time.
Hello, Dataquesters!
This edition is all about building skills that stick. We’re talking about why a little struggle can be the key to learning data science, how to bring your ideas to life with interactive AI apps, and ways to predict real-world outcomes with machine learning.
Here’s what’s inside:
Top Read: The science behind your struggle and 9 proven strategies to keep you moving when the going gets tough. Read blog
From the Community: From improving model predictions to setting goals that keep you motivated. Join discussion
New Project Tutorial: Check our latest blog to learn how to clean and analyze real survey data using Python and pandas, while diving into the world of Star Wars fandom. Try project
Why Struggle Is the Secret to Learning Data Science
Hitting roadblocks with learning Python, SQL, or machine learning? That frustration isn’t a sign you should quit—it’s a sign your brain is building stronger, faster connections through productive struggle. In this article, you’ll learn the science behind why difficult concepts stick, and how challenges like debugging merges or fixing SQL joins are an important part of your learning which will help you to write stronger, less error-prone code in the long run.
From the Community
Optimising Model Predictions: Steve worked on improving two models for predicting future fire damage, presenting the results through strong visual storytelling and insightful decision-making.
Stochastic Gradient Descent on Linear Regression: Fakhriddin applied SGD to predict gym crowdedness, showcasing impressive results supported by clear plots and cohesive storytelling.
Goal Setting for Learning Data Science: Learn how to set the right goals for your data science journey and share your own with the community to stay motivated.
Project Tutorials
Star Wars Survey Analysis: Learn how use Python and pandas to clean and analyze Star Wars survey data, identifying fan preferences and demographic trends to guide business decisions around the Star Wars franchise. Learn more
Finding Heavy Traffic Indicators on I-94: Learn how to build multiple visualizations that tell a comprehensive story about traffic patterns, demonstrating how exploratory data analysis can reveal insights that summary statistics alone might miss. Learn more
Analyzing Startup Fundraising Deals from Crunchbase: Learn how to process large CSV files efficiently by chunking, optimizing memory, and using encoding strategies, then turn the data into a fast, searchable SQLite database. Learn more
What We're Reading
Simon Willison’s Thoughts on GPT-5: Simon Willison previews OpenAI’s GPT-5, summarizing its key characteristics, pricing, and capabilities after weeks of testing.
ETL in the Cloud: An overview of how the cloud has made extract, transform, and load (ETL) workflows easier, faster, and more scalable by connecting to APIs and cloud apps.
Goodbye API Keys, Hello Local LLMs: A developer shares how they reduced costs by running LLMs locally on an M3 MacBook with MLX-LM, achieving fast, private inference without usage fees.
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