Great post. Agree with the power of simplification and spotting isomorphism. However, those usually come for experience. right? I guess that is also a big difference with JK -- he does not have the experience. Without experience I would not know how to simplify and spot pattern. Maybe this is what you were referring to here, "If all data tools are hammers, I might have fewer hammers than many people, but I’m very good at knowing exactly how to wield my hammers to good effect by recasting problems into familiar forms."
Yes, obviously experience is a factor, but spotting "this problem looks similar to something I've seen solved before" can also leverage book learning. As an example, I might not know the specific details about hazards and survival analysis, but if it clicks in my head that this customer retention analysis I've been asked to do looks a lot like those, that'd give me a huge head start in finding the right textbook/literature to reference. So a barrier to entry exists, but there's little shortcuts that can happen. Then as you do it more your toolbox expands
Full throated agreement here. Questions are much more important than answers because if a question is relevant to a type of fact (widgets/donkins, say) they remain the same even when the particulars of the facts change.
Great post. Agree with the power of simplification and spotting isomorphism. However, those usually come for experience. right? I guess that is also a big difference with JK -- he does not have the experience. Without experience I would not know how to simplify and spot pattern. Maybe this is what you were referring to here, "If all data tools are hammers, I might have fewer hammers than many people, but I’m very good at knowing exactly how to wield my hammers to good effect by recasting problems into familiar forms."
Yes, obviously experience is a factor, but spotting "this problem looks similar to something I've seen solved before" can also leverage book learning. As an example, I might not know the specific details about hazards and survival analysis, but if it clicks in my head that this customer retention analysis I've been asked to do looks a lot like those, that'd give me a huge head start in finding the right textbook/literature to reference. So a barrier to entry exists, but there's little shortcuts that can happen. Then as you do it more your toolbox expands
Full throated agreement here. Questions are much more important than answers because if a question is relevant to a type of fact (widgets/donkins, say) they remain the same even when the particulars of the facts change.