<p>The endless variations on "How do I analyze these data?" are not answerable questions. Full stop.</p>

<p>When I first started my career, I worked as a consultant specializing in data science. I didn't know much about math and machine learning, but I learned. (I was a "unicorn" that had some statistics background and some subject matter knowledge which made me qualified for a specialized role.) Even though I was picking up programming and math skills which were critical to my job, the absolutely most important lesson that I ever learned on that job was to ask this question, early and often:</p>

<h1>What problem are we trying to solve?</h1>

<p>The answer to that question will provide immediate and obvious direction. The answer to that question is also why it's impossible to produce a catch-all thread to answer "How do I analyze these data?"-type questions. "How do I analyze these data?" is only a question in the strictly grammatical sense. It's not a statistical question, it's not a data science question, it's not a machine learning question. It's a category error masquerading as a technical issue.</p>

<p>But note also that "What problem are you trying to solve?" also isn't a statistics question. It's a business question, for a broad definition of business. We can't answer these questions, either. But consultants can! </p>
