This course begins with a simple truth: any question can be an inquisition. This course invites you to bring your own topic—your curiosity, your obsession, your research question—and together we will build the database or meta‑database capable of answering it. Instead of abstract exercises, you will work directly with the material that matters to you. Along the way, you’ll learn the full spectrum of data thinking: Data Design, Data Assumptions, Data Interpretation, Presentation of Data, and Data Publishing. Every concept is grounded in examples drawn from your chosen domain, and I will guide you through the process of learning how to mine that domain for meaningful, defensible data.
Class Time:
24 hours of learning!
This is a 6‑week virtual computer‑lab series held on Sundays from 1–4pm EST. Each session is a three‑hour deep dive where you will actively build, refine, and interrogate your own data system. The focus is not on programming syntax or tool‑specific tutorials—it’s on developing architectural judgment. You’ll learn how to define the questions your system must answer, identify the data required to answer them, and design structures that remain resilient as complexity grows. By the end, you won’t just know how to build a data system; you’ll know how to think like an architect: curious, rigorous, and unafraid of the hard questions.
I am the ideal guide for this journey because I teach from a place of radical adaptability and deep experience. Since this course asks you to “bring your own topic,” you need an instructor who can instantly translate your specific passion—whether it’s finance, healthcare, social sciences, creative arts, or something entirely unconventional—into a rigorous technical framework. My specialty is bridging the gap between abstract inquiry and concrete database design. I won’t simply show you how to mine data; I will help you navigate the chaos of your own assumptions, constraints, and interpretation challenges. After years of building systems that survive the inquisition of real‑world use, I’m uniquely equipped to help you design a meta‑database that is both robust and deeply relevant to your interests.
