Don't Make This Mistake When Practicing Data Skills

Oh, don’t look at me! I’m hideous. Disgusting. I’m a liar!

A big fat liar.

The other day, I talked about how I was done with data projects – Python ones at least.

Since I wanna perfect my advanced SQL skills, I searched for a cool dataset to run some queries on. And I found some interesting data about the 2023 hitting stats for the absolutely greatest MLB team ever – The New York Yankees.

The Bronx Bombers, baby.

I could have just uploaded the CSV file into my MySQL server, BUT NO! This data dork thought it would be a good idea to write a Python script instead. And let me tell you…

The Python script sucked.

I didn’t spend enough time looking at the different data types for each column. So when my Python script tried inserting values into the table… BOOM. Nada. Nothing happened except for a big fat error.

At the end of the day, I spent nearly an hour troubleshooting my code to no avail. Yeah, I learned some new things about MySQL and Python, but here’s the kicker – my goal was to practice SQL. Not learn about it.

So, why am I sharing this with you…

Well, it’s a friendly reminder that you shouldn’t learn without a purpose. Know why you’re learning what you’re learning and don’t let distractions sidetrack you.

If you let distractions win, you’ll end up like me – a big fat liar.