Data comes natural to me.

By data I mean numerical, categorical, ordinal variables you see in a typical database. It was hard to believe at first but when I thought of my mom who works as an accountant for 30 years, it becomes less difficult for me to admit the fact that I do have some of her analytic genes in me. Or, perhaps, a lot.

But I prefer to call myself a data “artist” than data analyst. Because I believe there’s something more in me than just what it takes to analyze the data. I feel it too.

I understand their characters, their nature. I watch their behaviors, and correct them if necessary, because some of them do lie, and others are just loud, noisy, and messy.

They are my soldiers. I got to train them well before they can fight a war and be unbeatable. So I line them up, group them into a matrix, assign different missions for each one, and lay out a battlefield strategy for them to practice.

A well-trained data set is powerful. They tell you secrets no one else knows. They were like lifeless dirt before and now with a touch from the supernatural, something breathed life into them. My data came to life. And they become my best friend. I love working with them daily, speaking their language – programming languages.

These computer languages come natural to me too. Sorry if that’s giving you a heart attack! It was embarrassing to me at first because who would have thought a girl like me would love programming???  Not a very girly thing to do is it? But it all makes sense because learning English as a second language was much much harder comparing to learning a computer language, at least that’s how I feel.

So here I am, a data artist, who loves what she does.

I’m not sure if I love what I do because I’m naturally good at it or I’m good at it because I love doing it.

Maybe it’s both. No one is born to be good at something without having to practice it a lot, neither I know anyone who can practice something a lot without loving it first.

I’m reading The Creative Habits – a best seller by Twyla Tharp. An amazing dancer and choreographer who believes also creativity is a habit, an acquired skill rather than something given.

I like data artist title not only because I love art. but also on the job that I do, a lot of creativity is required to be able to do it well. I’ll explain why it is so next time.