I'm currently reading a very nice book (so far) by Dan Heath called Decisive: How to Make Better Decisions in Life and Work, where I came across the following passage on analysis vs. process: When the researchers compared whether process or analysis was more important in producing good decisions—those that increased revenues, profits, and market... Continue Reading →
How the iPad has changed my reading habits, and how it hasn’t
For my birthday this year, my wife gave me an iPad Air (thank you!) Unbeknownst to me, this was to radically change my reading habits. I am--perhaps was, now with the iPad--huge fan of libraries and bookstores: the smell of age-worn books, newspapers and old people; the sounds of teenagers and their gossipy tongues; and... Continue Reading →
The Three Christs Experiment (and Business Superstars)
I came across this nice write up on "The Three Christs of Ypsilanti" experiment (via Marginal Revolution) about how a psychologist put three people -- all of whom claimed they were Christ -- together in a mental institution, in the hope that the effect of their conflicting identities would somehow awaken them to the possibilities that... Continue Reading →
The Unequal Pay Monkeys Experiment
What happens when you give monkeys unequal pay? Surely monkeys won't feel indignant at being paid less than a peer? Well, some scientists decided to find out, and created this ingenious experiment that's now available on Youtube. Watch it below and be prepared to laugh your underpants off. The monkey's reactions are classic. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Go8tnl21MU
The Evolutionary Advantage of a Resistance to Change
I was just thinking about organisational change and pondering over how our natural tendency to change is to resist it, when this thought popped up: if resistance to change is so hardwired in our brains, it must serve some purpose -- but what? One of the premises of evolutionary theory is this: if something survives... Continue Reading →
Competitive Intelligence/Analysis
It's strange how today's the first day I realise how closely related competitive intelligence is to so much of what I've been doing and thinking and writing about in the fields of data analysis *slash* business analysis *slash * business intelligence *slash* data science etc. This discipline even has a professional society of called, aptly enough,... Continue Reading →
Decision Making: The Need for Experimentation Over Models
Jim Manzi, in his book Uncontrolled, makes a very good point about analytical models and their shortcomings, in particular the need for experimentation (i.e. controlled interventions) to figure out what really happens in the real world (emphasis mine): Cost changes often could be predicted reliably through engineering studies. But when it came to predicting how... Continue Reading →
The dismal failure of ‘Big Data’?
I just read an article on ZDnet on the dismal failure of 'Big Data' that was so bad I don't even know where to start. The author states that economics is a "big data" profession (why--what makes a profession "big data" or not?), and then goes on to say that because big data hasn't been... Continue Reading →
Some thoughts on the thinking behind building things
I’m going to write a bit about my thinking process whenever I build things, whether it’s websites, VBA applications, or financial models. I’m not too sure if this is going to be a “oh that’s so obvious why is he telling me this?” piece, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned, one person’s normal behaviour... Continue Reading →
Business vs. IT
I was reminded today in a book I'm reading on visual analytics that the purpose of any analytical project is ultimately to make better decisions. Coming from a mixed business and IT background, I have had my fair share of IT vs. Business conundrums. With my IT hat on, I'm always thinking about efficiency, optimisation, ease-of-use,... Continue Reading →
Donn, fragments 