This is the first report of a series of personal experiences in learning the statistical programming language R to acquire competencies of a data scientist. In this kick-off article, I will present an example, why cohort learning in the age of individualisation is not appropriate anymore. I will suggest an alternative, present my earned certificates and explain why I interrupted (or aborted?) a nine-course introduction to data science taught by professors of John Hopkins University and offered via the MOOC-platform Coursera.