"Listening to the data is important… but so is experience and intuition. After all, what is intuition at its best but large amounts of data of all kinds filtered through a human brain rather than a math model?" One of the most important steps as Data Science is a quantitative domain and core mathematical foundations will serve as a base for your learning. Probability is the measure of the likelihood that an event will occur. A lot of data science is based on attempting to measure the likelihood of events, everything from the odds of an advertisement getting clicked on, to the probability of failure for a part on an assembly line.

As a quick data point, today, on 353rd day of year 2018, I have come across the question from someone "I want to become a'Data Scientist, can you help me with a plan?" 48th time so far. If Google search trends tell a story, the frequency of this question coming from within the close and extended working groups also means that'Becoming a Data Scientist' excites a lot of IT practitioners. Here is my attempt to answer the question for the new entrants and those who are willing to cross/up-skill themselves and eventually become data scientists. This is a great quote from all time great Usain Bolt about Dreams and Goals. If you dream to be a data scientist, as a first step, you need to quickly translate that Dream into a SMART goal and remember that the goals do not come without a price. The price is time, effort, sacrifice and sweat.