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Data's Untold Story
Data's Untold Story
Data's Untold Story
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We’re creating more
of it than ever It’s cheaper than
ever to store We can process
OVER THE LAST TWO
YEARS WE CREATED it faster than ever
TO STORE 1GB OF
For centuries,
people used data to...
OVERTURN THE STATUS QUO
“ BY DENYING SCIENTIFIC
PRINCIPLES, ONE MAY
MAINTAIN ANY PARADOX.”
At a time in history when a person could be killed or
imprisoned for holding ideas contrary to the status quo,
Galileo championed the idea that the earth is not the
center of the cosmos.
FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE
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UNDERSTAND THE UNIVERSE
“ IF YOU CAN’T EXPLAIN IT SIMPLY
YOU DON’T KNOW IT WELL ENOUGH.”
Einstein developed the world’s most famous
equation, the law of the photoelectric effect,
and the theory of relativity. All are pillars
of modern physics.
ALBERT EINSTEIN
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NOW, THINK ABOUT THIS:
Galileo had a feather & ink.
You have a supercomputer.
Old Tools vs
New Tools
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STANDING ON THE
SHOULDERS OF GIANTS
Because of Egyptian mathematics, the scientific revolution,
statistics, and every great thinker and scientist and curious
mind that has come before you, it is easier than ever for
you to also make history with data.
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HOW TO USE DATA TO
CHANGE THE WORLD
Data heroes possess a different skill set. They see 4. EXPERIMENT
the world differently. They approach problems in a DESIGN
way that most people don’t. Want to make history
with data? It’s time to learn a few fundamentals.
6. TOOLS
1. CREATIVITY
3. DATA
COLLECTION
2. INTELLECTUAL
HONESTY
5. DATA
INTERPRETATION
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HARNESS CREATIVITY
Data can help you find the
answer, but it’s up to you
to ask interesting questions.
When George Washington Carver saw soil
stripped of nutrients, he invented crop rotation.
When his strategies resulted in an overabundance
of peanuts, he discovered 300 uses for the crop.
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PURSUE INTELLECTUAL HONESTY
Data or no data, sometimes
you’ll still get things wrong.
And that’s ok.
Newton is revered as a key member in the
scientific revolution. He gave us calculus,
formulated the first laws of motion, and
proved the heliocentric model of the
universe once and for all.
ISAAC NEWTON
PHYSICIST • MATHEMATICIAN
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COLLECT DATA SYSTEMATICALLY
You can only analyze the data you
have. Be strategic about what to
gather and how to store it.
Marie Curie discovered polonium and radium,
established the first military x-ray centers during
World War I, and led the world’s first studies on
using radioactive isotopes to treat abnormal
tissue masses known as neoplasms.
PHYSICIST • CHEMIST
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DESIGN EXPERIMENTS
There is an approach that leads
to the right answer: it’s called
the scientific method.
With colonial powers sailing the seas, a cure for
scurvy was a hot topic in the mid-18th century.
James Lind was the first to apply a scientific
approach to the solution.
RONALD FISHER
STATISTICIAN
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MASTER THE TOOLS
All the processing power and
storage in the world is useless
if you don’t know how to use it.
Every web site, smartphone, and computer owes
its genesis to Alan Turing. He was the first person to
imagine the universal computer, a machine able to
accomplish any information-processing task.
ALAN TURING
Define a question
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Gather resources
Try Googling it
MORE OF THE SAME
CRAPPY RESULTS
It’s ok, billions of people before you
have made this decision. Feel free to
continue accepting mediocre results. Form a hypothesis
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THE CHALLENGE IS THIS:
Using data is hard. It takes more time,
new skills, and a different way of
thinking. It also takes courage —
no one likes being told they’re wrong.
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LET’S FACE IT, NOBODY EVER SAID
DOING GREAT THINGS WAS EASY
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WHY WE
WROTE THIS
When people think critically, test their
assumptions, and know how to interpret
data they consistently get better results.
The world needs better results.