The techniques and tools presented in this book are essential to learning how to make sense of the data deluge that is upon us. Science is based on data and observations, so being dexterous with the methods and techniques in this book will make you a better scientist.

The author structures the book into different sections that each offer a new point of view on working with data: describing, modeling, and mining. The chapters offer a nice balance between theory and practice, but the theory is certainly there, so you should be comfortable with theory to get the most out of this book. Each chapter surveys an open source tool that is relevant to the techniques in that chapter and provides a short, motivating introduction.

Some parts the stuck out to me are the ones that described logarithmic plots and gaussian density curves. However, I unexpectedly enjoyed the section on financial modeling the most because data usually informs decisions and decisions usually involve money, so having an understanding of those concepts is very practical.

Overall, this author provides highly practical advise and it feels like a manual of hard-won knowledge from a long career. ( )

Excellent ideas for data analysis concepts. Useful ideas. ( )