Hi! It's nice to meet you.

I'm Ben, but my friends call me Mr. Ben.

You can usually find me on Twitter. Shoot me a DM!

My mission with Ray Data Co. is to lower the barrier to entry for people joining the field and extend the impact of seasoned data practitioners.

To make progress toward this goal I'll be uncompromising on two points.

Examine real business problems.

Most tutorials are too sterile. Perfectly cleaned and modeled to arrive at a set answer. However, real data is proprietary. Understandably so, but this creates a gatekeeper effect, where you never really know what you're getting into until you're there.

Hobbyist price-point - Professional impact.

Analytic projects can rack up a tab. I want you to be able to practice these skills without breaking the bank. So I'll be biased toward open-source technologies. Sorry, you'll have to get your Looker experience elsewhere.

Not-So-FAQ

I spent more time than I care to admit on seemingly small details. Often they go unnoticed and do not get the attention they deserve. So, I'm glad you asked!

Why call it Ray Data Co?

The Tampa Bay area is my home now. I love this area and wanted to draw some inspiration from it. Tampa is the lightning capital of the world, has an annual pirate invasion, palm trees, cigars, the best Cuban sandwiches, and the running of the rays.

Rays also make a nice parallel to math.

I like your style. Is there a story behind the look & feel of your data doodles?

Más o menos. Some details have more meaning than others. Let's run through them.

Apps: I do all my doodling on my iPad with Procreate.
Procreate Pens: I make heavy use of two pens. The technical pen gives a nice clean look. Then the chalk pen is a special nod to my dad and all his years being a professor.
Color Scheme: I took the purple from my alma mater, Furman University. Everything else I thought looked good, in my opinion.
Font: Noway Round

Doodling was nothing I ever expected to add to my toolkit. So I'd like to thank Aaron Alto and Nate Kadlac for helping me define my visual style.