Recently, I have pondered President Russel M. Nelson’s statement that, regarding revelation, “Nothing is off-limits.” Just as President Nelson learned divine laws that enabled him to accomplish open heart surgery, I figured that there must be divine laws that guide data science!

I’ve already written about how computer science reminds us of divine law — but now I’d like to explore what the Creation teaches us about data science.

Creation or Organization?

Joseph Smith taught the following about the Hebrew word create:

Now, the word create came from the word baurau which does not mean to create out of nothing; it means to organize; the same as a man would organize materials and build a ship. Hence, we infer that God had materials to organize the world out of chaos.

The Hebrew word for “create” could also mean to fashion, mold, and shape (see Genesis 1:1).

From Abraham 3:24 we read, “And there stood one among them that was like unto God, and he said unto those who were with him: We will go down, for there is space there, and we will take of these materials, and we will make an earth whereon these may dwell.”

In one sense, we could say that God created the heavens and the earth — but it would be equally true to say that he organized the heavens and the earth.

I was blown away as I realized this connection to data science, for, in reality, I do very little “creating,” and a lot of organizing.

Often, when we begin to work with data, we call it raw data. Joseph Smith's reference to "chaos" is spot on. In its most basic form, it is not yet useful. So what do we do? We process, clean, and analyze the data. Typically, we structure the data with defined relationships. In short, we organize the data.

This organization relates to coding as well. I’ve never written binary instructions in their most basic form for computers to understand; instead, I organize pieces and parts of code that have already been written. By putting these pieces together in specific ways, I can write programs to solve specific problems. You could say that I write or create code — but really, I just organize it.

Spiritual Creation

President Nelson’s April 2000 Conference talk teaches much about the Creation.

He says, “Each phase of the Creation was well planned before it was accomplished. Scripture tells us that 'the Lord God, created all things … spiritually, before they were naturally upon the face of the earth.'" (see Moses 3:5)

Very similarly, as we organize our data science projects, we must create things spiritually or mentally before we create or code them physically. This applies to other industries as well. Prototypes, proofs of concepts, blueprints, and scale models all help us to create things spiritually, in a sense, before we create them physically.

Agile Sprints

Again from President Nelson, “The physical Creation itself was staged through ordered periods of time. In Genesis and Moses, those periods are called days. But in the book of Abraham, each period is referred to as a time. Whether termed a day, a time, or an age, each phase was a period between two identifiable events—a division of eternity.”

Agile methodology is a commonly used project management approach in software development. With agile, larger projects are broken up into smaller tasks, and each year or quarter of work is broken up into sprints. To put a spin on President Nelson’s words, “Whether termed a [sprint], a time, or an age, each phase[is] a period between two identifiable events—a division of [what may seem like an eternity].”

Jokes aside, there is a lot in common with Agile! At the end of each period, Jehovah and Michael would return and report on what they had accomplished to Elohim (daily stand-up meeting anyone?). The project of the Earth’s creation was split up into manageable chunks, with different objectives for each period. These sequential steps culminated in the creation of Man — to which we owe everything!

Conclusion

I really do believe that the scriptures can teach us so much about our fields of work. God is the greatest data scientist, project manager, doctor, teacher, and everything else.

You can learn a lot about eternal truths that define your field. “Nothing is off-limits”! But even greater are the lessons on how to treat people. I pray that we may continue to learn spiritually, that it may bless our careers, and more importantly, impact our eternity.