Are You Using Data To Analyze The Past Or To Create A New Future?
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In Nate Silver’s Five Thirty Eight manifesto, he argues that the plural of anecdote is data. After all, it is through compiling and analyzing observations that we transform ordinary experiences into scientific conclusions.
Yet the concept of data is still relatively new. According to Google’s Ngram, the use of the word only began to be heat up in the 1960’s. So, although data is a term that gets thrown around a lot, it’s not something we’re really accustomed to using in a meaningful way.
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Today’s big data techniques focus not so much on the past, but the present. No longer are we trying to divine the rhythms of the past to uncover eternal truths, but using a vast array of sensors and servers to gobble up data and analyze it in real time. Truth is no longer measured in eons or even in months, but in milliseconds. That’s why big data matters.
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It’s now becoming clear that business models don’t last and skills need to adapt. We need to start taking a more Bayesian approach to strategy in which we no longer expect to uncover timeless truths, but instead value adaptation over steadfastness, learning over experience and preparation over planning.
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