About Zachary Sparks

Data isn't alive. Humans are.

I'm a data professional who found my way in through the back alleys and doors of corporate life.

At points in my life I've been a high school teacher, an assembly line worker, a foreclosure processor, and a sales and marketing representative. But then I entered the data space, and I live there now.

Data itself is exactly what it is: it's only when humans see the data that the "why" behind it comes out. Only then can the data become something you carry with you, remember, and pass on to others.

Finding the story — it's what I've studied and enjoyed from books and games and music for over 30 years. What is that story trying to tell you beneath the surface, and why does the author need you to know this?

In the past that meant my keyboard spoke in natural language through poetry and short stories, and I worked to train others in that same art. But now the keyboard speaks a little differently. It's SQL and Python, and it's through well-modeled data and tools built to visualize that data that I'm seeking to fulfill an old promise: a picture is worth a thousand words.

The image can be the story.

Thanks for visiting!

— Zack