When telling friends and family that I blog about data science, I am frequently asked to explain more. I usually respond with an answer similar to this:
You know the world is generating huge amounts of data everyday due to financial transactions, medical records, social networks, and other internet uses. Data Science aims to make better decisions based upon that data. Here are some possibilities. What type of people buy TVs in October? Which patients will get better with this new drug? Who are some other people that you probably already know?
Data Science is all about answering these types of questions with real data instead of assumptions.
I think this explanation could use some refinement. What am I leaving out? What should I remove? How do you explain data science to other people (preferably non-technical or non-data people)?