Never knew this site existed until today. Worth a look if you work with big data or just want to know more about it: http://www.bigdatarepublic.com/
On Analysing Big Data and Storytelling
There’s a neat post on analysing big data and storytelling on an HBR blog worth checking out. From the post: Data scientists want to believe that data has all the answer. But the most important part of our job is qualitative: asking questions, creating directives from our data, and telling its story. That’s a neat... Continue Reading →
The importance of getting users to trust your data
When I’d just joined my current company, I’d heard stories about people leaving because they could never trust the numbers that were being thrown around. They were frustrated that more time and effort was spent trying to get the correct numbers for their reporting than doing any "actual" work. What is more, because they couldn’t... Continue Reading →
Tackling Impossible Projects
There was one time one of the files used in building a report was corrupted. In most cases this would be an easy fix: e-mail the relevant IT person in charge of this file and get him or her to send the corrected file over. But there was a small problem: we needed this report... Continue Reading →
Statistics do not always tell the whole story
I'm not sure if you've read or heard about the recent unfavourable review of the Tesla Model S by New York Times reporter John Broder, but if you haven't, you should. Not because of the review itself, which was newsworthy in possibly putting a large dent in the credibility of the Model S as an... Continue Reading →
Predictive analytics in layman’s terms
I'm going to be talking a little about predictive analytics today, to give you a rough idea of what it is (and isn't). You might have read in the news before about things like computers and algorithms churning out predictions on what might happen next, in industries as diverse as the financial markets to soccer... Continue Reading →
The problem with using analytics to predict team performance
Read this interesting (and insightful+funny) article by McAfee on baseball and analytics (with reference to the enjoyable baseball movie Moneyball). Although it's written about baseball, it's really about sports and analytics, and how analytics has changed the way we made decisions. (Disclaimer: I don't follow baseball; don't play it; don't know much about it.) The funny... Continue Reading →
How to make better decisions using Opportunity Cost
The cynic knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. -- Oscar Wilde Opportunity cost can help you make better decisions because it helps put your decisions in context. Costs and benefits are framed in terms of what is most important to you at the time of the decision. Every time we make... Continue Reading →
Donn, fragments 