At the end of 2020, like many people I felt very run down by a difficult year. I work in data science for HCA Healthcare, and our team had spent much of the year building tools to help our hospitals effectively care for COVID-19 patients. This work was very fulfilling, but by the end of the year I had completely lost my way in balancin...

On May 4, I decided I would run every day in May. I've had a goal this year to run, on average, every other day. In January, I was a little ahead of that goal; in February I fell behind due to a week of snowy, icy conditions in Nashville. March was basically breakeven, and I picked up a couple extra days in April to get on par for the ...

I recently became the leader of a data science team, which has led me to spend a lot of time thinking about motivation. What motivates me to do good work, regardless of my mood or how I'm feeling on a given day? What will motivate my team? What role can I play to help each person on the team be excited about what they're working on? On...

Having worked in both education and health care, I've learned that influencing highly educated, highly competent people with data science predictive models is very, very difficult. There are a few common challenges that come up early and often in conversations: • "There's nothing this can tell me that I don't already know." • "There's ...

I've been thinking a lot recently about the deeper meaning of data science and prediction in practical contexts. One idea I keep returning to is the notion of data science as a form of advocacy. A valuable model doesn't just generate predictions, it generates signals that are intended to inform people and spur them to take specific act...