You have no doubt heard about ‘Big Data’ but you might be wondering what it really means. You’d be right in thinking it basically means lots of data but is it just an issue of quantity?
Trouble is, there is no compact definition of ‘big data’. Even more worrisome is that ‘big data’ has become a bit of a throwaway term that is being used increasingly by all sorts of businesses and individuals to give the impression they’re working at the cutting edge of data science – moving forward, so to speak!
Big data is not new. Data scientists (aka statisticians) have been dealing with huge data sets for ever (they also deal with incredibly small data sets which is possibly an even bigger challenge).
At VisionAnalytix, we’re not focused on size. What’s important is the information content embedded within those data. The task of the data scientist is to use the best available tools and methodologies to efficiently extract this information.
So when someone next tries to impress you by touting their ‘Big Data’ credentials, pause and reflect on this rather insightful commentary by Dan Ariely:
“Big data is like teenage sex: everyone talks about it, nobody really knows how to do it, everyone thinks everyone else is doing it, so everyone claims they are doing it… “