David Brooks, in his Times column today, looks at the rise of “data-ism” — the rapidly spreading belief “that everything that can be measured should be measured; that data is a transparent and reliable lens that allows us to filter out emotionalism and ideology; that data will help us do remarkable things.” Brooks is wary of the worship of Big Data. He worries, wisely, about our tendency ”to get carried away in our desire to reduce everything to the quantifiable.” But he grants that there are some obvious benefits to statistical analysis. For one thing, “it’s really good at exposing when our intuitive view of reality is wrong.” – read more of Nicholas Carr’s latest post
How should we best deal with the data & content glut and how should we best educate and prepare our students for a lifetime not just of ‘Big Data’ and ‘Big Science’ but of ever bigger data and bigger science?
