Matt Yglesias, John Cole, and Ezra Klein have picked up the question about data mining math. If you’re looking for a small enough needle in a large enough haystack, will the noise outweigh the signal?
Ezra Klein asks the question nicely:
I
Adina Levin's weblog. For conversation about books I've been reading, social software, and other stuff too.
Matt Yglesias, John Cole, and Ezra Klein have picked up the question about data mining math. If you’re looking for a small enough needle in a large enough haystack, will the noise outweigh the signal?
Ezra Klein asks the question nicely:
I
This stuff’s all around, unfortunately – a weird combination of enthusiasm for the technology which allows us to crunch Big Numbers and lack of understanding (or curiosity) of how Big Numbers work. I wrote about it here
http://phenomenologic.blogspot.com/2005/11/we-are-your-friends.html
in the context of British (local) government and child protection – another of those topics where cost/benefit analysis tends to go out of the window.