Maggie's Farm

Ugh. Hate that term.

I can't tell you how many meetings we've had discussing what we're doing with "Big Data".
If I could get away with it, I'd ask "what, exactly, do you mean when you say Big Data, because it means many different things and the fact is we've been involved with Big Data long before computing was part of our industry. It's just 'bigger' now because we have collections of information which extend over longer time periods and broader swathes of information. Most of it is so inconsequential, it's hardly worth adding as an input and really adds little to the discussion."

But then again, I am a believer in complexity, in which little things have long term impacts. I just don't believe you can necessarily determine, over the massive amount of small inputs, which one will ultimately have the largest impact - because it's impacted by so many other little ones, and you have to start discounting these things at some point.

It's one reason I'm not a fan of Malcolm Gladwell. He's a good writer and it's good stuff, but it's not really adding value. The Tipping Point, in particular, was misinterpreted in more ways than you can possibly imagine.