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What the hell is “data science” anyway?!

February 19, 2021 By editor

Too much time has been squandered on trying to define data science, AI, machine learning, data analysts, data thingymajig, etc.

Who cares? I’m happy to return to “statistics” and “programming”.

We should follow the lead of United States Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart.

I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description [“hard-core pornography”], and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it…

Filed Under: Data science Tagged With: definitions

Spreadsheet error delays opening of children’s hospital

October 26, 2020 By editor

An audit report has blamed a spreadsheet "copy and paste" error for cost overruns and delays at an Edinburgh children’s hospital.

A local politician called it

[…] one of the most expensive typos in history.

How many more high-profile spreadsheet failures is it going to take before we deem the inappropriate use of them to be professional malpractice?

Filed Under: Data analysis, Software Tagged With: spreadsheet abuse, spreadsheets

16,000 coronavirus cases missed by Excel

October 5, 2020 By editor

When the lead story in the Daily Mail complains about Excel misuse in its headline you know things have gone too far.

15,841 coronavirus cases were excluded from UK government figures as a result of

…an Excel spreadsheet reaching its maximum file size, which stopped new names being added in an automated process.

Apparently these details were not supplied to the "track and trace" programme, meaning that people exposed to the virus were not alerted—potentially leading to unnecessary infections.

I’ve been complaining about spreadsheet misuse for a decade, and this is one of the most shambolic examples I’ve come across. Blatant abuse of Excel as a ramshackle database.

This also highlights the dangers of casual automation. Without appropriate checks and balances, automated processes can fail catastrophically, and silently.

There really is no excuse for this level of incompetency. And, the worst thing is the "solution".

The technical issue has now been resolved by splitting the Excel files into batches.

Add more sticking plaster to the homespun system and press on. I can only weep.

Some additional technical details have been revealed since the story broke.

Filed Under: Data analysis Tagged With: Excel, spreadsheets

20 cognitive biases that affect your decision-making

September 25, 2020 By editor

Business Insider has an infographic that describes 20 of the most common cognitive biases that can screw up your decision-making.

Filed Under: Decision science Tagged With: cognitive biases, decision traps

The science of decision-making and data

September 25, 2020 By editor

John Searle

Those of us involved in decision and data science would do well to remember the words attributed to John R. Searle.

If you have to add “scientific” to a field, it probably ain’t.

Image: FranksValli (CC BY-SA)

Filed Under: Data science, Decision science Tagged With: quote

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Recent posts

  • What the hell is “data science” anyway?!
  • Spreadsheet error delays opening of children’s hospital
  • 16,000 coronavirus cases missed by Excel
  • 20 cognitive biases that affect your decision-making
  • The science of decision-making and data

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