My resolutions for 2014

Kunal Jain 17 Apr, 2015 • 3 min read

In my last post, I mentioned how 2013 has been a phenomenal year for me. I can’t wait to continue the momentum in 2014. The year looks full of promises, a lot of learnings and value creation.

So what are my plans for 2014?

New_Year_wallpapers_Happy_new_2014_year

I plan to take a few resolutions and then track myself against them. I think that doing so guides and anchors my growth as a person. Last year, I completed 3 out of 4 resolutions I took. I am hoping to hit 100% achievement this year.

[stextbox id = “section”]Guidelines:[/stextbox]

While the web is full of suggestions on how to and how not to make resolutions, I will just mention the guidelines I follow to create my resolutions:

  • I usually keep only 3 – 4 resolutions in a year. Any more than that and there is a huge risk of not achieving majority of them (Yes, there have been years when I wanted to achieve more than 10 of them!).
  • The intention is to have measurable and objective resolution. So each resolution can be handed to a third person who can judge me on them at the end of year and tell me my success rate.

 

[stextbox id = “section”]Resolutions:[/stextbox]

So here are the resolutions I have kept for myself for 2014:

  • More frequent usage of R and Python in my analytical endeavors. I rely heavily on SAS and excel for the work I do. While I have learnt R & Python and used R sparingly, I am still some steps away from executing entire project on both these languages. By end of year, I plan to deliver at least 1 project each on R and Python independently.
  • Continue contributing actively in creating a community of analysts (in India): While the journey of Analytics Vidhya started last year, I plan to continue and increase the ways this platform becomes useful for development of a analyst community (specifically in India).

So, how would I measure this? The outputs I will measure are obviously readership and audience engagement on Analytics Vidhya. The inputs I will track myself against are number of posts, number of conferences attended / presented.

  • Re-start reading: I used to religiously read for ~30 minutes before hitting bed every day. However, this changed after we were blessed with Jenika (my daughter). My mid-night baby sitting and blog engagement have left little room for reading at night. I’ll re-start reading for an hour at least 2 days in a week.
  • 5 kg weight loss: This is the only un-ticked resolution from last year. I am hoping to reduce some belly fat I have accumulated over last few years. My family and friends will tell you that I write this every year and the strike rate has been low. I am hoping to change it this year.

So, here is my reminder sheet for rest of the year:

resolutions_2014

That’s it! I’ll keep you posted on how I track against these during the year and I am hoping to hit 100% achievement on each of these.

What are your resolutions for the year? How do you plan to grow as a professional? If you have set aside resolutions, please feel free to post them and we can track ourselves collectively. If not, would you want to join?

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Kunal Jain 17 Apr 2015

Kunal is a post graduate from IIT Bombay in Aerospace Engineering. He has spent more than 10 years in field of Data Science. His work experience ranges from mature markets like UK to a developing market like India. During this period he has lead teams of various sizes and has worked on various tools like SAS, SPSS, Qlikview, R, Python and Matlab.

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Responses From Readers

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Ram
Ram 03 Jan, 2014

Great resolutions!! Have started compiling information on R - http://r.ramganalytics.com/r/ You does not seem (from photo) to have any issue with weight.. :) Thanks Ram www.ramganalytics.com

aanmol
aanmol 03 Jan, 2014

Excellent Kunal''''''''''

Kumar Chinnakaliu
Kumar Chinnakaliu 03 Jan, 2014

Cheers New Year 2014 ! Here are my resolutions to go with, 1) Usage of Hadoop and R in Big Data Analytics project 2) Get Certified, in Industry Big Data Analytics 3) Engage with the Open source Community ( Big Data Analytics area) 4) Once in a week spend quality time with family and my angel "Anuja Kumar" "Analytics Vidhya" is awesome resource for both beginners and experienced. Hats Off Team. Regards, Kumar Chinnakali

sourav Datta
sourav Datta 16 Jan, 2014

Hey kunal I can you give me a link to learn predictive modelling which should be self explanatory. I want to learn it eagerly. I am not from statistics back ground. So its better if you give me the link using SAS. I am ok with it.

sourav Datta
sourav Datta 16 Jan, 2014

Hello Seniors, This is Sourav. I am very new to analytics field. I want to learn predictive modelling. So for that reason I want a link which will teach me that. As I am not from statistics background so please send me a link which a layman can understand but not very tough.

Chetan Ahuja
Chetan Ahuja 19 Jan, 2014

Hi Kunal, we will need a predictive model on resolution tracking . I wonder if time series or log. regression will be of use . Or both . Or is Taleb right on life is mostly of Outliers difficult to predict. Rgds. keep up the good work. Chetan

Roma
Roma 07 Nov, 2022

good, write up. thanks for this knowledge.