I’m more than 20 years away from my last math classes. And though I
spent my startup experience around some
very
smart mathematical
types, I didn’t learn enough at any point to actually use data in
models, make models, or otherwise become one of those “big data” types
you read about…well, fucking everywhere.
But I did learn a healthy dose of respect for what data, and math, when
put together by the right people, are capable of. And since signing up
with Sage Bionetworks, first as a Board
member, and more recently as a member of the management team, I’ve
learned a lot about what data can do now that processors, storage,
bandwidth, and sequencing are all brutally cheap.
The key is, as per @DCDave, to reset
your expectations. Cheap, plentiful data changes the epistemology of
fields. It did so in
baseball, which went from
trusting a scout’s “gut” instinct to an intensely data driven science.
It did so in
weather. This
year, it did so in politics.
But it’s very hard to reset your expectations when you’re at the top of
a traditional industry. The punditocracy’s dismissive handwaving towards
Nate Silver is all I can think of when I go to traditional events on
science and health these days.