Real scientists make their own data
Around budding social- and data scientists, a question you often hear is “where can I get data?” It happens so often that people like Hilary Mason, who I’m sure gets this question all the time, have posted pages with resources. Getting new data can be just what you need to practice a technique you are learning or complete a project that you can publish or add to your portfolio.
Here I argue that if you want to make a bigger impact as a scientist, you should make your own data instead of downloading it. Here are my points: