Our guest today is Joshua Starmer, Founder and CEO of StatQuest, a Youtube channel with over 700k subscribers which clearly explains complex statistics and machine learning methods.
In our conversation, Josh first talks about his career: his PhD in Bioinformatics, how he got introduced to the concepts of Statistics and variation and how he learned more about it.
We then explore StatQuest, how the channel started and discuss the difficulties behind leaving a full time job to start your own project. We also explain what the channel is about and why it became so successful.
We finally talk about Josh's new book "The StatQuest Illustrated Guide to Machine Learning" and give advice on how to make progress in Data Science.
If you enjoyed the episode, please leave a 5 star review and subscribe to the AI Stories Youtube channel.
Follow Neil on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leiserneil/
----
(00:00) : Intro
(01:57) : Bachelor Degree in Computer Science and Music
(05:59) : Why choosing Computer Science over Music ?
(09:55) : Why doing a PhD in Bioinformatics ?
(13:17) : Being your own boss
(18:31) : How Josh got introduced to the world of Data Science and Statistics
(24:50) : Caring about general concepts rather than focusing on the details
(27:36) : Working in a research lab
(30:55) : How StatQuest started
(38:47) : What is StatQuest ?
(41:47) : Why is StatQuest so successful ?
(46:10) : How to build a successful Youtube channel
(51:41) : The StatQuest Illustrated Guide to Machine Learning (new book)
(56:37) : One advice for someone to progress in their career