Big Data Is A Sham
Big companies are hoarding big data and doing nothing with it–except invading our privacy. It’s time to think small, writes Paddle Consulting’s Brian Millar.
There’s a joke about a quality control guy in a match factory. He picks up every match, strikes it, says, “This one works,” blows it out and puts it in a box. The joke is funny because instinctively we know that he doesn’t need to see every detail to understand the big picture. This instinct seems to fail people when it comes to Big Data. As a reader of Co.Design, you’re probably the kind of person who has to turn insights into things, whether it’s communications, products or entertainment. As that insight increasingly comes from data, it’s a failure that affects us all.
Take the Cambridge Analytica affair. It’s uncovered a lot of shortcomings in governments and businesses. But there’s a deeper scandal here: the innumeracy of everybody concerned. Why the heck would you need data on 85 million people to communicate to them?
The answer is that you don’t. Gordon Ramsey doesn’t need to eat the whole risotto you cooked before he knows whether to call you an incompetent arsemuppet. He just needs a forkful. In the same way, you can find out everything you need to know…
