Part I - Data Basics

The first part of this book is mostly conceptual. It shows how “data as an asset” may seem like a recent phenomenon but has its roots present in our society, and how data has enabled our growth since the beginning of history.

How we treat data and transform it into valuable insights is also approached, along with an introduction to Information Theory — although understanding the theory is not essential to effectively work with data, a historical and even academic overview of the subjects gives us a sense of proportion and complexity of the theme.

This first part aims to give you the necessary background and support for the more advanced chapters to come that will discuss how to use data to get insights and generate value.

Suppose you’re familiar with software development, data manipulation, storage, and database concepts. In that case, you may skip to Part II and get straight to the business chapters covering analytics, business strategy, and data teams.