Hello, world (beer burp)

I’ve been meaning to get this post/site up and going for some time now. If I told you how long I’ve had this web address and how little I’ve done with it you’d probably shake your head. You might also empathize, I mean I can’t be the only procrastinator. Excuses aren’t just something I come up with, right? Ironically, I’m actually moving forward (for real this time?) at one of my busiest and most transitionary periods. That’s not entirely odd. When you have little time to use you have little time to waste.

This post/site isn’t meant to be so much about myself personally, and all my snowflake-uniqueness, as about some data focused perspectives on beer. So what you’ll find, or more accurately what you’re meant to find are posts related to beer, data, and learning. Or learning about beer data. Or drinking beer while data learning. I don’t know, it’s meant to be a mish-mash of those three major ingredients, with some occasional tipsy blogging no doubt. That digression is all meant to say: let’s not highlight the current obstacles and predict future excuses, let’s instead go through some of the obstacles to date that have kept me from sharing gems like this post with the people.

Perhaps a look back will help moving forward.

Excuses, in no particular order

  1. Having nothing to say.
    • Nothing's changed, so I'm not sure what was holding me back to begin with. The worth of what I have to say will vary, no doubt toward the lower value end in the beginning especially. Only with getting some reps in, putting in the practice, will anything worthwhile come to fruition.
  2. Not enough time.
    • I feel this is a legit concern and a strong indicator of what you deem important at the time. That was not meant to sound dismissive or insensitive. Whether you're wasting time or maximizing your talents what it is you actually do with your time is the best measure of what you've decided to value. I've had time commitments of all shades of legitimacy, from the productive (pursuing education) to the questionable (drinking beer), back to the productive again (drinking beer; I now consider it research).
  3. Lacking expertise in... well, you name it:
    • Industry - I'm not an insider or someone who remotely draws any compensation from the beer industry. I am however a consumer, and a damn well experienced one at that (hey, Mom!). That's my starting point. That is where my interest lies and where I will be approaching most pieces from.
    • Data analysis - Up until very recently I was not doing any of this type of work for a living. I had an interest in data analysis/science/visualizations but my interest and not-too-infrequent awe were acting as more of a barrier than a catalyst (a 10-cent word that should read "kick in the ass") to participating. I have since gotten over this, somewhat. There is a decent amount of work and even more time required to getting "good" at any of this but none of it is impossible, and surely far less daunting once you get in there and get your hands dirty.
    • Web technology - What do I even mean by this? That was part of the problem. This was a nebulous area that I was not putting enough effort into trying to clarify for myself. Did I think I would have to build/rent/run my own server? That I'd have to create an entire consumer facing Web 2.0 UX (throw in any additional fancy-shmancy technical terms you'd like)? How about the analytics portion? More than anything else this was a giant bundle of tangled questions I couldn't bother facing. Solution: keep it simple and build from there. A bare bones site is pretty modern looking anyway (writing in 2016 to all you historians).
    • Writing - I've seen enough 140 character belches and brain farts at this point to no longer have any concern of sounding like an idiot. In fact, if the internet is any indication (which of course it is not, it is sometimes just a dumping ground for people's frustrations and pet projects - ahem, on me) I should be able to get by with the occassionally deep researched (read: tipsy) post. In any case, my tallest-midget writing abilities should suffice for the purpose of getting my point across and hopefully providing some interesting content.
  4. Low energy.
    • This one's a real bitch, especially the older I get. Which is every damn day. It is tough to keep going after a long day at the office and maybe a trip to the gym. You want to spend time with family, friends, pets, or sometimes just yourself doing nothing at all. Believe it or not 20-year olds reading this, there is a time fast approaching when "going out" will be the least appealing option when considering what to do with your free time. Just imagine how much enthusiasm you can muster when what used to pass for having a good time has tipped over the other side of the cost-benefit fence.
  5. Not knowing where to start.
    • In what might seem as a direct contradition to the first point, there have been times when I had too many great pretty decent ideas about what analyses or visualizations to pursue. In these instances it was not uncommon to feel one of two things: a) overwhelmed by the options; & b) intoxicated (pun intended) by the opportunities, getting excited by brainstorming and allowing my imagination to run wild but having nothing tangible to show for it.

I could go on, but see excuse #4.

Current Motivations

The purpose for this site is two-fold and one at the same time (ooh, koan!): I wish to create content I am interested in seeing.

Beyond that I expect it to prove an exercise in “no”. No to excuses, no to spending time on other things I do not find interesting or valuable, and no to putting off what I want to create.

Toy Dataset / Toy Vis

Before concluding this “first” piece (there were past iterations of this site with a visualization or two I intend on self-plagirizing on occassion) allow me to include a simple visualization below. Simple so as not to set expectations too high (ha!) and simple as in, hopefully, deceptively simple:

US Breweries Data Source: Beer Institute

Lastly, a quote for motivation:

“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few” ― Shunryu Suzuki , Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice

Cheers / Proost / Salud / Yamas