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Cutting Through Data Science Hype

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the this-year's-silver-bullet dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Data science — or "big data" if you prefer — has evolved into a full-fledged buzzword, thanks to marketing departments around the world. John Foreman writes that part of the marketing blitz has been focused on how fast big data analysis can be. Most companies offering some kind of analytic service try to sell you on how it'll make it easy for you to quickly find and fix the problems with your business. But he points out that good, robust models need a stable set of inputs, and businesses often change far too quickly for any kind of stable prediction. He takes IBM's analytic services as an example, quoting Kevin Hillstrom: "If IBM Watson can find hidden correlations that help your business, then why can't IBM Watson stem a 3 year sales drop at IBM?" Foreman offers some simple advice: "Simple analyses don't require huge models that get blown away when the business changes. ... If your business is currently too chaotic to support a complex model, don't build one."

4 of 99 comments (clear)

  1. Reminds me of a joke by ShaunC · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Big Data" is like sex in high school. Nobody really knows for sure how to do it properly, but everyone thinks everyone else is doing it, so everyone says they're doing it, too.

    --
    Thanks to the War on Drugs, it's easier to buy meth than it is to buy cold medicine!
    1. Re:Reminds me of a joke by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      "Big Data" is like sex in high school. Nobody really knows for sure how to do it properly, but everyone thinks everyone else is doing it, so everyone says they're doing it, too.

      Well, OK, but this is slashdot. Are you sure your audience will get this analogy? Can you try to rework this into a car analogy instead?

    2. Re:Reminds me of a joke by Registered+Coward+v2 · · Score: 5, Funny

      "Big Data" is like sex in high school. Nobody really knows for sure how to do it properly, but everyone thinks everyone else is doing it, so everyone says they're doing it, too.

      Well, OK, but this is slashdot. Are you sure your audience will get this analogy? Can you try to rework this into a car analogy instead?

      "Big Data" is like sex in a car while in high school. Nobody really knows for sure how to do it properly, but everyone thinks everyone else is doing it, so everyone says they're doing it, too.

      --
      I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
  2. Marketing by sexconker · · Score: 3, Funny

    If you have a marketing department, you're wasting money.
    If you hire a marketing firm, you're burning money.
    If you hire a marketing firm and then take their advice, you're emptying your bank account into a volcano.