Had Mark Twain lived today, we might hear him utter the oath lies, damn lies, and analytics. Statistics to be sure may still be used to distort the truth – but now with the sudden explosion of big data, analytics threaten the same fate.
I’m not talking about intentional distortion here – that’s another story entirely. Rather, the risk of unintentional distortion via data analytics is becoming increasingly prevalent, as the sheer quantity of data increases, as well as the availability and usability of the analytics tools on the market.
The data scientists themselves aren’t the problem. In fact, the more qualified data scientists we have, the better. But there aren’t enough of these rare professionals to go around.