The biggest problem with software is that it doesn’t do us any good at all unless our wetware is working properly – and unfortunately, the wetware which resides between our ears is limited, fallible, and insists on a good Chianti every now and then.

Improving our information technology, alas, only exacerbates this problem. Case in point: Big Data. As we’re able to collect, store, and analyze data sets of ever increasing size, our ability to understand and process the results of such analysis putters along, occasionally falling into hidden traps that we never even see coming.

I’m talking about fallacies: widely held beliefs that are nevertheless quite false. While we like to think of ourselves as creatures of logic and reason, we all fall victim to misperceptions, misjudgments, and miscalculations far more often than we care to admit, often without even realizing we’ve lost touch with reality …