Data science has been called "the sexiest job of the 21st century" -- a sentiment I'd believe if I saw more business leaders hiring data scientists into environments where we can be effective. Instead, many of us feel misunderstood and invisible. We are the people who help inspire new directions for your business, reduce your risk of setting important decisions on fire, and automate the ineffable through machine learning and AI. We make your data useful, yet you make us live in resource squalor. Unskilled leadership -- If you don't have personnel skilled at leading and managing the data science function, we'll have a miserable time.

In the year 1900, the world was in the midst of a machine revolution. As electrical power became more ubiquitous, tasks once done by hand were now completed quickly and efficiently by machine. Sewing machines replaced needle and thread. A hundred years later, in the year 2000, machines were again pushing the boundaries of what was possible. Humans could now work in space, thanks to the International Space Station.