Walter Gretzky is credited with the quote: “Go to where the puck is going, not where it has been.” Walter used socratic questioning to teach his son, Wayne, hockey strategy. Here’s the full context from Wayne’s perspective: Him: “Where do you skate?” Me: “To where the puck is going, not where it’s been.” Him: “Where’s the last place a guy looks before he passes it?” Me: “The guy he’s passing to.” Him: “Which means…” Me: “Get over there and intercept it.” Him: “If you get cut off, what are you gonna do?” Me: “Peel.” Him: “Which way?” Me: “Away from the guy, not towards him.” (Gretzy, Reilly, Gretzky: An Autobiography p. 88) Puck On To win a game of ice[…]

If you need a tool to break down complex scenarios, this approach, a tool using decision forests, might be right for you. By the end of this post, you’ll be able to use the gentler, forward, variant of dancing in a decision forest. This is a post is intended for a curious audience. Decision You’re an extraordinary assembly of chemical gradients. At any given moment you have the opportunity to make millions of decisions. The crudest segmentation, the roughest way I can impose order on all of this complexity is divide them up in two types of decisions: to act, or to not act. Further, when you decide to act, there are two broad types of actions: explore and exploit.[…]

This is the second in a series on The Basics of Organizing For Data Science. In this series: Why Agendas; Why Prepare For A Meeting; Why Document A Meeting; Why The [ACTION REQUIRED] email tag; Why The Bullet Point. Why Prepare For A Meeting Because your time is valuable and non-renewable; Because time is valuable and non-renewable; Because you want to get off the critical path or continue on the critical path. When To Prepare For A Meeting Before the meeting. How To Prepare For A Meeting Read the agenda; If there is no agenda, ask for the agenda; Does the agenda indicate a decision, situation, or consultation that you need to be prepared for? If you need to gather[…]

This is the first in a series on The Basics of Organizing For Data Science. In this series: Why Agendas; Why Prepare For A Meeting; Why Document A Meeting; Why The [ACTION REQUIRED] email tag; Why The Bullet Point. Why Agendas Because you want to know what the meeting will be about; Because you want to prepare for the meeting; Because you want to inform others about what to prepare for. Where Agendas In the calendar invite directly. When Agendas When you send the calendar invite; Update in the calendar invite as amendments are made. What Agendas Default Berry format: Outcome: What can be done to <arrive at a decision about something> Hi! What are the facts about XXXX? What[…]

This is the fourth in a series on The Basics of Organizing For Data Science. In this series: Why Agendas; Why Prepare For A Meeting; Why Document A Meeting; Why The [ACTION REQUIRED] email tag; Why The Bullet Point. Why The [ACTION REQUIRED] email tag in the subject line Because you are calling out that an action is required; Because you are calling out that a specific email is important; Because clarity is more likely to cause action; Because it is not always clear which emails are important and which are not important. Where to use [ACTION REQUIRED] In the subject line of an email. What is [ACTION REQUIRED] The Addressee is asked to undertake an action that is important,[…]

This is the fifth in a series on The Basics of Organizing For Data Science. In this series: Why Agendas; Why Prepare For A Meeting; Why Document A Meeting; Why The [ACTION REQUIRED] email tag; Why The Bullet Point. Why The Bullet Point Because they’re readable; Because they’re short; Because readable and short things are more likely to be read. What Is The Bullet Point <—- This right here; It’s sometimes it’s used as an item in an unordered list of items; The line has blurred between the ordered list and the unordered list. Where To Use The Bullet Point In powerpoint presentations; In email; In blog posts about bullet points. When To Use The Bullet Point When you want[…]

This is the third in a series on The Basics of Organizing For Data Science. In this series: Why Agendas; Why Prepare For A Meeting; Why Document A Meeting; Why The [ACTION REQUIRED] email tag; Why The Bullet Point. Why Document A Meeting Because data is getting generated by people; Because data is getting organized or disorganized; Because the probability of full quorum approaches 0 as the number of participants increases to 12 and beyond; Because decisions are at their clearest when they are documented and circulated; Because those that come after you can trace the intuition for a decision. Which Meetings To Document Meetings with a strong decision component should be documented; Meetings with a very strong situational awareness[…]