Category Archives: Asking questions

DataKind’s Jack Porway on Data Science

Posted on November 8, 2013 by GilPress

“If you leave an excited data scientist on his own to solve a problem, he’s going to solve his own problem – which is usually parking his car, or finding a bar to drink at. The trick that we worked … Continue reading →

Posted in Asking questions, Data Science, Data Science Careers, Data Scientists, DataKind | Leave a comment

The Big Data Debate: Correlation vs. Causation

Posted on April 30, 2013 by GilPress

In the first quarter of 2013, the stock of big data has experienced sudden declines followed by sporadic bouts of enthusiasm. The volatility—a new big data “V”—continues this month and Ted Cuzzillo summed up the recent negative sentiment in “Big … Continue reading →

Posted in Asking questions, Big Data Analytics, Causation, Data Science | Tagged | Leave a comment

Big Data Commentary Roundup

Posted on March 6, 2013 by GilPress

Katie Baker in Grantland: “After spending two days and nights [at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference] talking and thinking and hearing about data visualization and correlation coefficients and Big Data… and things like ‘Dequantizing the Player Draft Using Extreme … Continue reading →

Posted in Analysis, Asking questions, Big Data Analytics, Big data market, Data Science, Data Scientists, Skills, Sports Analytics, Statistics | 1 Comment

Big Data Quotes of the Week

Posted on July 13, 2012 by GilPress

“In traditional biology research, people ask a key question, or run a trial. They make clinical and molecular measurements to address that question. They use some statistics or computation. Then they validate what they’ve found in another, more advanced trial. … Continue reading →

Posted in Asking questions, Big Data Analytics, Business Impact, Challenges, Data Scientists, Enterprise, Health Care, Machine Learning, Music, Quotes, Scientific applications | Leave a comment

Machines vs. Models, Noise vs. Signal

Posted on May 30, 2012 by GilPress

An excerpt from Nassim Taleb’s forthcoming book, Antifragile, was posted yesterday on the Farnam Street blog. In “Noise and Signal,” Taleb says that “In business and economic decision-making, data causes severe side effects —data is now plentiful thanks to connectivity; … Continue reading →

Posted in AI, Asking questions, Big Data Analytics, Machine Learning, Models | 3 Comments

The Trouble with Big Data

Posted on May 5, 2012 by GilPress

Douglas Merrill, former CIO/VP of Engineering at Google, has issued an important warning about big data: “With too little data, you won’t be able to make any conclusions that you trust.  With loads of data you will find relationships that … Continue reading →

Posted in Asking questions, Big Data Analytics, Big Data Bubble, Data Science, Data Scientists, Domain Expertise, Models, Predictive analytics, Quotes, Scientific applications | 17 Comments

Asking Good Questions is What Will Make Big Data Work for You

Posted on August 14, 2011 by GilPress

Asking good questions as the key to unleashing the potential of big data got significant blog time this past week.

Posted in Analysis, Asking questions, Data Scientists, Models | Leave a comment