# S2 E6: Byte: Data side-hustle

> This is content from just-tim, the data-and-analytics channel by Tim Ngwena (formerly 'Tableau Tim'). Tim has 12+ years of hands-on BI experience and covers Tableau most of all, plus Power BI, Looker, Hex, SQL and data modelling, the analytics industry, and the craft of doing the job — always tool-agnostic and honest about the trade-offs.

- **Author:** Tim Ngwena (just-tim, https://just-tim.com/about)
- **Published:** 2024-04-22
- **Format:** Video · 44 min watch · transcript available
- **Topics:** Analytics, Career, Community
- **Tools:** Alteryx (input output, macros); Tableau (prep, public)
- **Canonical:** https://just-tim.com/posts/s2-e6-byte-data-side-hustle
- **Watch:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-tI06jyy6I

In this Datum byte, Ravi and I dig into our data side hustles: my quantified self obsession and Ravi's football analytics work. We chat about getting granular data out of wearables, the back end behind football data, active versus passive tracking, and how these passion projects sharpen the skills we bring to client work.

## Key takeaways

- A data side hustle forces you deeper than day-to-day client work because passion drives you to ask better questions and respect the technical edge cases.
- Apple Health's privacy-first model stores data at the device's most granular level (sometimes per second), producing huge JSON exports, whereas Fitbit aggregates to the minute because it lacks an ecosystem to keep you in.
- Passive data collection (LastFM scrobbling, Wi-Fi router check-ins via IFTTT, location apps) gives richer, more accurate data than active manual logging, which suffers a negative skew because people mostly log when they feel bad.
- Edge cases bite you: a nil-nil match broke Ravi's Alteryx workflow until he added a Detour tool, and extra-time substitutions broke a World Cup dashboard built around the 90th minute.
- Internal hackathons and free tools like Tableau Public are practical ways to give employees time to build data literacy and import fresh approaches into the business.

## Chapters

- 0:00 Intro and catch-up
- 2:13 What is a data side hustle
- 7:37 How wearables have evolved
- 9:53 Soft questions and tracking music
- 12:49 Getting raw data out of devices
- 15:36 The back end behind football data
- 18:28 How side hustles sharpen your skills
- 31:45 Active versus passive data collection
- 40:19 Enabling side hustles with hackathons
- 42:17 Wrap up

Watch the full video, read the transcript and use chapter deep-links on the page: https://just-tim.com/posts/s2-e6-byte-data-side-hustle

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just-tim — Data and analytics, with a point of view. · https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7HYxRWmaNlJux-X7rNLZyw · https://twitter.com/TableauTim · https://www.linkedin.com/in/timngwena