Isolate Yourself By Doing Data in the Hills - Like Me

Isolate Yourself By Doing Data in the Hills

... or, What I Do and Where I live

I am a Data Scientist

I've been a data-loving scientist most all of my life. Only now though is it a sexy career choice. Yeah for me!

I developed a model for data intelligence for the U.S. Army and other U.S. government military intelligence agencies about ten years ago when I was hired to organize and merge all their myriad Military Intel software programs into a unified Graphical User Interface (GUI) to be moved off big computers onto field laptops for easy field agent use.

The model I developed was a simple, intuitive and natural categorizing for all their existing software breaking down all intelligence steps into a three-fold process: Capture data, Analyze it into Information, and then Present it as Intelligence. I used the C.A.P. of these verbs to term it the CAP Model of Intelligence.

Bureaucracies Complicate Elegance  

As best I can tell, the U.S. Army intelligence model I developed morphed into something more to their suiting and less comprehensible. So, to this day the CAP Model, though really just the natural flow of phenomena belonging to nature itself - gather/digest/expend, is by copyright law (till they dispute otherwise) owned by me, as the original concept author.

I Work Today in Business Intelligence 

That means I write code, manage data warehouse infrastructures, supply and trouble-shoot data for reporting, and administer, use, or help others use various BI tools. These things mostly fall into the "C" side of the CAP Model.

Recently I did an objective survey of my job skills and found that though I make reasonable enough money to live how I live doing my present job, I despairingly fall into the bottom two percentile bracket of pay for who I am and what the market says I'm worth.

Up till now, I've been very happy doing what I've been doing over the last ten years of so since I worked doing military intelligence software stuff. It's a friendly environment with good people. I'm able to work from home 90% plus of the time. (The work is global and people are scattered so my physical location via remote computer is really irrelevant.) And it's a good company all in all to work for. Also, it's given me the freedom over the last two years to design and build my own own.

 

I Live in a Small Cabin 

My Small Cabin - Wife, I, and Her Father Built Also

...on five acres with my wife and two dogs on the Blanco River in the heart of Texas, known as The Hill Country. I am very isolated, bordering vast non-populated areas, and have lots of interesting wildlife to keep me constantly entertained.

The Narrows, five miles upriver - middle of nowhere

Eventually it became time to build a larger house to entice my own children to come visit me, provide larger space for friends and family, and to give us all a little elbow room. I've almost completed the new house.

Being a natural scientist (one who continually explores, postulates, discovers and synthesizes information - yes, the natural CAP model), I've been content with my head down enjoying the work of studying, managing, and trying to control, build and present data. With the latest evolution of things in this field, I think the simple job I've been doing and will likely continue doing is becoming much more recognized as a science that business is willing and anxious to utilize.

I think I will continue doing what I naturally do and expand my skills in this field into some of the latest technologies and hopefully find a good place to live.

It will probably be as a Data Scientist in that house on five acres out here among the wildlife in the beautiful Texas Hill Country. With my wife and two dogs. And anybody else that wants to come by.