Publications by George Mount
Why data analysts should learn to code
When many hear “data analytics” these days, they think of graphical user interface (GUI)-driven business intelligence (e.g. Tableau), data warehousing (e.g. Snowflake), or data preparation (e.g. Alteryx) platforms. These tools have their place (some more than others) in the analytics stack. But rather than focus on these tools in my book Adv...
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It’s here! Advancing into Analytics: From Excel to Python and R (O’Reilly, 2021)
The Clark’s Nutcracker has landed! That’s the bird on the cover of Advancing into Analytics, copies of which I received the other day. There’s that new author enthusiasm! With my new book, Advancing into Analytics You can now get your digital or paperback copy too at your bookseller of choice. Learn more about the book, including how to bu...
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Learning guide: Introduction to the Tidyverse, one-day workshop
To an outsider, some R packages sound too cheeky to be very valuable. Take, for example, the tidyverse. What on earth does that groaner of a portmanteau do? By the end of this workshop, you’ll know that the tidyverse is so-called because it’s a collection of packages used together to clean, model and depict data using “tidy” principles. ...
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Memorable quotes from Advancing into Analytics
As a data educator, I’ve helped plenty of self-styled math- and technophobes find out that data and analytics is for them, and it’s fun. These learners are often pretty surprised by how approachable and humorous many analytics professionals are. I mean, not all of us are out of touch… at least those of us who want to sell books. Advancing ...
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How to Build Analytics Technical Skills (How to Get an Analytics Job Podcast)
I’m excited to join How to Get an Analytics Job podcast host John David Ariansen on a live stream Friday 6/4 at 12p Eastern. You can join on LinkedIn Live or via the YouTube embed below. A recording will be made available there after the event as well. Some readers may remember I’ve been a guest on John David’s show earlier, to discuss ana...
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How open source packages are like smartphone apps
I remember my first days of coding R: I would search around for how to do X task, and find out that Y package would be really helpful. But that led to more questions: What are packages in the first place, and how do you use them? In this post, we’ll explore what these packages tell us about the nature of open source, and how using them is like ...
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Free checklist: 30 Days to Data Analyst
“How do I get better at data?” is a question I get a lot. It’s an interesting one to answer — plenty of great resources are out there, it’s just a matter of finding the right sequence for the right objective and circumstances. I assume “get better at data” in this case to mean using data to meet business objectives through common te...
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What is an open source software distribution?
I remember when I first got into Python and heard about Anaconda. It wasn’t really clear to me if Anaconda was a “dialect” of Python code, a really awesome suite of tools for working with Python, or something else. What is a distribution, anyway? Turns out that Anaconda is first and foremost a distribution of Python… and to understand ...
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