
Sidney Minassian is an entrepreneur who runs, among other things, Contexti and Actionable Insights
A few months after this interview in March 2019 Contexti was acquired by Versent. Sidney has now launched ImpactLadder – a global people development company.
You’ll find a transcript of this entire podcast here.
He’s been thinking about the problems of data science and analytics for a while now, and this podcast is a few of his thought nuggets, including:
- 7 ways to increase your value as a data scientist (who doesn’t love a good listicle?)
- Some classics on how to run meetings more effectively
- And why you need to say no, and be a Narrow Niche Ninja
Sidney Minassian also talks about:
- Disruption and change and how it affects data science
- It’s never the technology that’s the problem, it’s the people
- Why it’s not just about the data and the tools – it’s also about how we take advantage of the tool?
- What the c-level need to know about data
- Why you don’t need to know EVERYTHING to work in data science
- Seven ways to increase your value as a data scientist
- Why it’s important to take control of your own relevance
- How he makes health a theme in his family
- Being a stickler for time: and how it works in meetings: why you need to set tone and expectation for meetings, and how pizzas figure in that
- How values figure in his company and the way they work
- Nothing is forever – and what that means at work
- Having the fight early
- What to do when you have too many things to do: managing your to do list
- Why he has more than 56,000 unopened emails in his inbox: if something’s important you have to step into the client’s office to get attention and action
Hints and tips
- Here’s a link to Sidney Minassian’s article Seven ways to increase your value as a data scientist
- He mentions the 4 hour body from Tim Ferris
- The Amazon two pizza rule for meetings
Podcasts
- Sidney Minassian’s podcast for entrepreneurs is here
- Mixergy is one of his favourite podcasts
- and he also mentions the Tim Ferris podcast
- I mention Shane Parrish’s podcast interview with Toby Lutke from Shopify
Charity
Sidney Minassian’s favourite charity is Cure Brain Cancer Foundation
Find the full transcript of this episode here.
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