Avinash Navlani is the author of Python Data Analysis – Third Edition, we got the chance to sit down with him and find out more about his experience of writing with Packt.
Q: What is/are your specialist tech area(s)?
Avinash: Data Science, Machine Learning and Python.
Q: How did you become an author for Packt? Tell us about your journey. What was your motivation for writing this book?
Avinash: I used to teach Data Science at a university and also write content on Data Science. I got the opportunity from one of your Acquisition Editor. My core motive is to share my knowledge with a wider audience and Packt is helping me to reach that much audience.
Q: What kind of research did you do, and how long did you spend researching before beginning the book?
Avinash: I have an overall 8+ year of experience in Data Science. In which I have worked as a Research Assistant, Assistant Professor, and Sr.Data Scientist. Since my starting, I am working on Machine Learning and Data Science projects, and most of the work I am doing in Python from research projects to industry projects. Also, I teach the same subject at the university.
Q: Did you face any challenges during the writing process? How did you overcome them?
Avinash: Because of my experience in the domain, content-wise I didn’t face any issue but the main challenge is to keep writing regularly with your job is quite challenging.
Q: What’s your take on the technologies discussed in the book? Where do you see these technologies heading in the future?
Avinash: Python and Data Science are much more demanding skills for the upcoming 5-10 years. Data is the new fuel for the 21st-century growth engine. Python is the most demanding tool for any Data Analyst, Data Engineer, and Data Scientist.
Q. Why should readers choose this book over others already on the market? How would you differentiate your book from its competition?
Avinash: This book covers exploratory data analysis and all the machine learning algorithms that are necessary for any data science job role and also focuses on advanced techniques such as NLP, image processing, and parallel computing of data.
Q. What are the key takeaways you want readers to come away from the book with?
Avinash: Data manipulation, exploratory data analysis skills, predictive analytics, NLP, and image processing.
Q. What advice would you give to readers learning tech? Do you have any top tips?
Avinash: 1) Be good at your basics of Machine Learning for any data science job role.
2) Be good at any programming language usch as Python and R.
Q. Do you have a blog that readers can follow?
Avinash: https://machinelearninggeek.com/
Q. Can you share any blogs, websites and forums to help readers gain a holistic view of the tech they are learning?
Avinash: https://machinelearninggeek.com/
Q. How would you describe your author journey with Packt? Would you recommend Packt to aspiring authors?
Avinash: It was a wonderful experience with the team. I have got an idea about how to write content that appeals to the audience.
Q. What are your favorite tech journals? How do you keep yourself up to date on tech?
Avinash: I follow https://paperswithcode.com/ it has all the latest paper with their code.
Q. How did you organize, plan, and prioritize your work and write the book?
Avinash: As a Senior Data Scientist and father of a 1-year-old daughter. I need to manage lots of things but early morning hours and the weekend I use for writing content.
Q. What is that one writing tip that you found most crucial and would like to share with aspiring authors?
Avinash: Follow the headings, keep it simple, and use image/block diagrams to explain technical content.
You can find Avinash’s book on Amazon by following the link below cover image:
