Epilogue: A Brave New World

This book has only scratched the surface of the field of statistics. The skills you learned in this book are the foundation of data science, and now is an exciting time to be working with statistics and doing data analysis. Data science promises to be one of the most important fields of the 21st century. It includes techniques from many fields—including statistics, math, engineering, and the physical, computer, and behavioral sciences—and presents new possibilities for data interpretation, visualization, and collection.

What this book has introduced you to is vital for understanding and engaging with data science. Regardless of your career path, we hope the skills you have learned here will help you in your everyday life to think critically and make decisions based on data, rather than on opinions or anecdotes.

Wishing you all the best,

Linda R. Cote
Rupa G. Gordon
Chrislyn E. Randell

“Correlation” by Randall Munroe/xkcd.com is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.5.)