Many, many moons ago I began my first data science project. It involved a search algorithm for selecting the most probable mode of inheritance for a congenital anomaly given 10,000 two-generation pedigrees. Given the complexity of the algorithm I had to do my own coding: in FORTRAN ! It was tedious to say the least but I felt that I thoroughly knew the ins and outs of the methodology as a consequence writing code.

After that project I discovered a new analytical tool that promised to…