The Discreet Science
Big Data Needs Experienced Hands to Guide It
The Harvard Business Review publishes this interesting comment from Dell’s Jim Stikeleather. He warns that we often forget about the “human component in the excitement over data tools.” Here’s Stikeleather:
Understand that expertise is more important than the tool. Otherwise the tool will be used incorrectly and generate nonsense (logical, properly processed nonsense, but nonsense nonetheless).
Understand how to present information. Humans are better at seeing the connections than any software is, though humans often need software to help.
Stikeleather’s observations echo our own experience using Big Data tools to perform investigations. It is one reason we’ve developed our own visualizer to present our findings to clients—and why we value our experienced investigators who have worked on complex problems teasing out the right information quickly with minimal diversions down fruitless paths.
Big Data’s Human Component – Jim Stikeleather – Harvard Business Review.
