24 Oct ‘DATA DOES NOT CREATE MEANING. WE DO’
Big Data only has meaning through our interpretation of it
I just watched a wonderful TED talk by Susan Etlinger, and it reminded me of a masterclass I attended , led by Nassim Taleb in the Amsterdam Tuschinsky Theater in 2013. He is the author of the book ‘The Black Swan’. A book which had great impact on me.
Nassim does not come across as a very ‘happy go lucky’ guy of which his stock trading strategy is a good example. That might explain his sharp but also doomy perspective on how we put big data to use. Being somewhat of a tech savvy marketeer with a tendency to cheer on all that data mining and analytic tools have to offer, he did put things in perspective for me. Big data can also lead to big error. As Snowden also pointed out clearly in his interview for Wired, by the way.
‘DATA DOES NOT CREATE MEANING. WE DO’
Enough about the gloomy side of big data analysis and back to Susan Etlinger, data analyst at the Altimeter Group, an agency I much admire. She held an inspiring talk about the value and non-value of big data and pointed out that our interpretation methods are key in whether to approach ‘big data’ as a bad or a good thing. Just watch the video and learn how ‘we are not (or do not have to be) passive consumers of data and technology.’