Mount Disappointment is an 800-metre mountain just north of Melbourne, Australia.

In 1824, Hamilton Hume, and William Hovell, two British explorers, had travelled from New South Wales in search of new grazing land and water sources. After travelling through hard country for months, suffering arguments and low morale, they spied Mt Disappointment (perhaps it was originally called Mt Opportunity?), and started climbing to gain a vantage of Port Phillip Bay. When they finally reached the top, they discovered the trees were too thick to see any horizon.

The road to learning about analytics, statistics and data science is a long and sometimes treacherous path. The journey is full of moments of pure wonder and amazement, which tend to be followed (immediately) by confusion and despair. Data, and the messages within it are messy, and it’s not uncommon to not see the woods for the trees.