Here is a list of some of my recent reading.
From David Siegel, some ideas for saving Microsoft. Along with an informative rebuttal.
I can’t believe how much Americans hate the vuvuzela (the horn that creates the incessant buzzing sound creating the backdrop to World Cup matches). National Instruments is a company with tons of engineers who do funny things with signal analysis. Mix the two and get a LabView app for filtering out the sound.
I live along Interstate 75. Every trip to Cincinnati and parts south takes me past a church with a seven-storey statue of Jesus with his arms raised–“Touchdown Jesus” as we say. I called home from Phoenix this week to check in with the wife and she told me that the statue was struck by lightening and burned to the ground. Something symbolic? The Dayton Daily News this morning says the preacher is preaching on the situation this Sunday.
Talk is cheap. The phrase “walking your talk” is powerful in your life. It’s how you build trust. And it’s hard to trust self-proclaimed conservatives like this guy.
“I once heard a Parker Hannifin controller describe engineers as people who are good with numbers but lacking the personality and social skills it takes to be accountants.” Great quote from Bill Waddell who goes on to dissect the comments of CFOs trying to chase the lowest wages and listening to themselves.
Predictive analytics is a phrase I just picked up at the Rockwell Software event. Here’s a Computerworld article that points to a new degree program at DePaul University.
Finally, worthwhile advice from Alan Webber about looking at all sides of an issue instead of jumping to unfounded conclusions.
“I do oppose government waste, but I don’t see this as government waste…" That says it all, doesn’t it? It’s only waste when the money goes to someone else. He’s a duplicitous impostor.
"Predictive Analytics" has the same feel to me as "Military Intelligence" and "Jumbo Shrimp." I’ll readily admit it’s from an ignorant standpoint: a little bit like me taking shots at Stephen Hawking’s theories.
What bothers me about it is that I’ve read Predictably Irrational. It calls into question lots of models we used to rely on for human behavior. Just because we label a variable as dependent doesn’t mean it is. I’m sure the mathematics of predictive analytics is quite sound and they are smart enough to avoid rookie mistakes like "correlation is not the same thing as causation." For me, it feels like a Regression Analysis Fan Club with a case of irrational exuberance.
Maybe I just contradicted my own point by citing Ariely’s book – after all, it does begin with the word "predictable." Perhaps I simply don’t like being told that someone can predict how likely it is that I’ll drive my car into a bridge abutment based on my credit score. But it doesn’t mean they’re wrong.
Well, they hope to do it through modeling vast amounts of data rather than regression analysis (or so they say). Hope they get it right.