Were you a mother who listened to classical music during your pregnancy, or a parent who played classical music in your newborn baby’s nursery because you heard it stimulates creativity and improves intelligence? If so, do you know where this “classical music makes you smarter” idea came from? In 1993, a
In 1964, when the American radio astronomers Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson were setting up a new radio telescope at AT&T Bell Labs, they decided to point it towards deep space where they expected a silent signal that could be used to calibrate their equipment. Instead of silence, however, what they heard
In previous posts, I pondered the evolution of problem solving that is being data-driven by our increasing reliance on algorithms, which some mistrust as a signal that we’re shifting from human to artificial intelligence (AI). Would you like to play a game? “Slowly but surely,” John MacCormick explained in his book Nine Algorithms that Changed the
My previous post was inspired by what Andrew McAfee sees as the biggest challenge facing big data: convincing people to trust data-driven algorithms over their expertise-driven intuition. In his recent VentureBeat blog post, Zavain Dar explained that the real promise of big data is that it will change the way
How well do you know big data in the retail industry? Want to find out? Read the following statements and pick which one is false: In the retail industry, big data is still five years away from becoming mainstream. In 2013, large billion dollar retailers spent an average of $75,000, or
While not quite at the level of big data, data discovery is attracting a good bit of attention these days. I explore both topics in The Visual Organization and Too Big to Ignore. It's only fair for people to ask if their legacy reporting tools support big data and data discovery. In short, the
“As the amount of data goes up, the importance of human judgment should go down,” argued Andrew McAfee in his Harvard Business Review blog post about Convincing People NOT to Trust Their Judgment, which is what he sees as the biggest challenge facing big data. “Human intuition is real,” McAfee
Big data seems like a daunting challenge because, as data management professionals, we have been taught by experts and learned from experience that we always have to dive deep into data in order to discover meaningful business insights, solve business problems, and support daily business operations. However, it’s possible to
In my three previous posts, I pondered whether unlimited data could limit data silos (i.e., whether offering users the enterprise data management equivalent of unlimited data streaming could curb their enthusiasm for creating data silos), or if streaming past the limits of unlimited data could create more data silos if users became frustrated with the practical
In my two previous posts, I pondered whether unlimited data could limit data silos (i.e., whether offering users the enterprise data management equivalent of unlimited data streaming could curb their enthusiasm for creating data silos) or if streaming past the limits of unlimited data could create more data silos if users
