The more that managers come to rely on so-called Big Data in their decision making, the more important it is that they understand how to ask the right questions about data, explains Kaiser Fung in Numbersense : How to Use Big Data to Your Advantage.
Fung is a statistician who believes that data consumers need to develop better numerical common sense or ‘numbersense’ in order to cope with ‘Big Data’. In this book he teaches us how to challenge big data.
Taking examples from healthcare, law school rankings, marketing promotions, sports and economic indicators Fung demonstrates how misdirected data interpretations can lead to poor decision making with damaging consequences for businesses and individuals and he explains why it is important to challenge big data.
As the data available to us grows exponentially, so too does the number of interpretations and analyses of that data with the result that consumers are faced with increased complexity and reduced clarity. Developing ‘numbersense’ equips us to ask the right questions and to perhaps listen more closely when common sense tells us that the data we’re presented with doesn’t quite add up.
Numbersense : How to Use Big Data to Your Advantage by Kaiser Fung is published by McGraw Hill. ISBN 9780071799669. [Disclosure: A free ARC was provided via Netgalley.com]