Not 30 Posts In 30 Days — Not Even Close

Here’s to experiments — the winners (electricity), the losers (alchemy), and writing. Instead of the 30 posts I said I’d write in June, I wrote 10. These garnered 419 views from 255 visitors, or about 1.6 views per visit. To all of you who came and read, thank you. They say you should learn from […]

Data Can’t Prove Happiness

On a recent trip, I stand in line at an airport Starbucks to get a hit. In front of me is an older woman, fussily put together and a bit anxious. She turns around and asks, “Do you come to this airport often?” This is either the worst pick-up line ever or a precursor to a question that […]

The Services Conundrum

Thomas Piketty’s doorstop, Capital In the Twenty-First Century, is so massive it gave a new name to a classic index of unreadness. But it’s actually really good. And, it includes the observation that, historically, the services sector has seen lower productivity gains than the industrialized goods sector because services tend to be less sensitive to technological advances. This is a big deal […]

Happy Bloomsday, Big Data!

Around the world today the literati celebrate Bloomsday by drinking deep of James Joyce’s intoxicating prose. And beer. Lots of literary beer. I remember this day every year because James Joyce taught me to love big data. Bloomsday commemorates Joyce’s life and his masterwork Ulysses, a massive creation that captures the universal in the specifics of one […]

Playing, The Numbers

E3, the biggest video game conference in the world, takes place this week in Los Angeles. In addition to raising questions about why violence and mayhem sell so well, it also offers insight into the datafication of play. Take Destiny, one of — if not the — most expensive games ever produced. If you’re not familiar […]

Writer, Interrupted

My achievements as a procrastinauteur seem to know no bounds. On June 1st, I said I would write something on big data every day for the entire month of June. I managed to keep that up for five days and then fell off the wagon for nearly twice that, going on a non-writing bender. As penance, […]

Data Is Not A Commodity

A common refrain among the digerati is that data is a commodity but insight is not. Or wisdom, or judgment — insert your favorite word for good thinking. It’s true that good thinking is in short supply. That’s why there are escape handles in the trunks of rental cars. And why Napoleon got his hat handed […]