“I Love Messing with Big Data”

Back on April Fool’s Day, I wrote a post asking whether I was an April Fool for perhaps welcoming the idea that the more companies know about me, the better.

I explained that when I research topics for various client projects I work on, I keep seeing a wide variety of ads that don’t apply to my life much at all.

For example, if I’m researching the market for diabetes treatments, I see offers for testing kits. If I’m looking over sites from companies that offer home equity loans, I’m bombarded by ads for refinancing.

That reminded me of an old Calvin and Hobbes cartoon by Bill Watterson:

Fast forward 21 years

That cartoon is from 1995, AOL was just in its infancy. Calvin’s Chewing magazine probably wasn’t online, nor had many tools to know much about its readers compared to all the metrics available today.

So 21 years later, I thought the cartoon needed an update. Here’s my (very) crude version:

So in 1995, we had “small data” and today we have “big data.”

As it turns out, Bill Watterson stopped drawing “Calvin and Hobbes” in 1995, but I’m sure that whether “small data” or “big data,” Calvin would still love messing with it.

Oh, and thanks Bill Watterson. You’re still an inspiration!