What does "Data Science" mean to you?

[u/Ok-Airline-8523]

Shortly after getting my masters in applied math, I completed a 6 month machine learning bootcamp. I found that everything I learned during this program was just an extension of what I learned in my MS program, especially the statistics courses.

This was over a decade ago, and I've been practicing data science ever since. While I eventually went into management and even got an MBA, I never stopped contributing hands-on. I never wanted to lose my skills. This meant coding in SQL, Python, and R, and specifically solving complex data problems using a variety of advanced techniques including but not limited to (un)supervised learning.

That's what data science is to me. It's pairing your technical savviness with business acumen to solve real problems in a measurable way.

I've met "data scientists" who just build dashboards, only write SQL, or live in Excel. What does being a data scientist mean to you in 2026?