OT: Is ubiquitous and cheap data a blessing or a curse?

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Submitted by carlsbadworker on April 20, 2009 - 3:56pm

When asked what jobs would he recommend to a young person with a bachelors degree in economics, Hal Varian, Google chief economist says: "If you are looking for a career where your services will be in high demand, you should find something where you provide a scarce, complementary service to something that is getting ubiquitous and cheap. So what’s getting ubiquitous and cheap? Data. And what is complementary to data? Analysis. So my recommendation is to take lots of courses about how to manipulate and analyze data: databases, machine learning, econometrics, statistics, visualization, and so on."

However, as pointed out by psychology professor Barry Schwartz in his famous book "The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less", a bewildering array of choices floods our exhausted brains, ultimately restricting instead of freeing us. So when the real estate data is finally ubiquitous and cheap as it is now, does that really work as a blessing or a curse for the potential home buyers here on piggington?

I mean, you get conflicting data everywhere. Yes, the foreclosure is rising but the for-sale inventory is shrinking at the same time. The FED is printing likes there is no tomorrow, but the inflation is dropping and dollar is strengthening. At the end of the day, what conclusions can you really draw from the data? Or many of us just draw the conclusion first and back it up with the selective data that we choose? Do we use data for illusration or delusion?

Are we better off with the ubiquitous and cheap data or not?!

‹ OT: Release of the DOJ torture transcripts. I'm sure these are all just coincidences... ›
carlsbadworker wrote: Or many
Submitted by davelj on April 20, 2009 - 4:14pm.

carlsbadworker wrote:
Or many of us just draw the conclusion first and back it up with the selective data that we choose? Do we use data for illusration or delusion?

"When confronted with the possibility of changing one's mind or proving that there's no need to do so, most folks get busy on the proof."

John Kenneth Galbraith

A keen mind can parse
Submitted by afx114 on April 20, 2009 - 4:22pm.

A keen mind can parse multitudes of data and select which is applicable to the question in hand. I'd rather have too many choices than not enough -- and rely on my filtering skills to get to the juicy nuggets that I need.

But you are right in that the brain needs to be trained to efficiently parse tons of data. I struggle with this daily, as I have an insatiable appetite for knowledge, learning, and yes -- data. There is no doubt that thanks to the Internets, the way in which we access and parse data has changed exponentially, even in just the past 3-5 years. While it may seem overwhelming at first, I have no doubt that the mind will evolve to better process data.

Think of kids in middle school or even high school now -- they won't ever know a world without the Internet. Likely their brains will develop differently than those of us who remember a world without unlimited data at our fingertips.

With the likes of Google, Wikipedia, Zillow, and even data such as photos, tweets, and blogs, and your friends lists on Facebook (yes, your friends are 'data'), there is no doubt that that we have almost unlimited data at our disposal. The key is 'everything in moderation.' It's better to snort a line at a time than to bury your face in a mountain of powder, Scarface style.

NUMBER FIVE... NEED MORE IIINNPUT!

We must be tapping that
Submitted by jpinpb on April 20, 2009 - 4:34pm.

We must be tapping that percentage of the brain which at one time didn't get used by now.

For those of us who grew up
Submitted by CA renter on April 20, 2009 - 11:52pm.

For those of us who grew up pre-internet and pre-PC in every house, it's stunning to watch kids get around on computers.

What took us years to get comfortable with, my 3, 5 and 7 year olds are figuring out on their own...things that I don't even know about after over two decades of almost daily computer use. Scary!!!

Agree with afx. I'd rather have tons of **reliable** information available, and sort through it myself.

There is a talk on KPBS right
Submitted by afx114 on April 22, 2009 - 10:32am.

There is a talk on KPBS right now exactly about this very subject:

http://www.kpbs.org/radio/these_days;id=14411

New research gives a clue that technology and the vast information it provides may actually be changing and re-tooling the way the brains of younger people work. The generation called millennials, who grew up alongside the digital technology explosion, are displaying faster-decision making skills, and of course, an affinity for the workings of high-tech devices.

But that doesn't necessarily leave the rest of us out in the cold. My guest says using high-tech devices may be a good way for adults to keep their brains young. And those young people, with all that fast cognition, may eventually have to brush up on that face to face communicating.

Pigs are ahead of the curve as usual!

CA renter wrote:For those of
Submitted by alarmclock on April 22, 2009 - 11:24am.

CA renter wrote:
For those of us who grew up pre-internet and pre-PC in every house, it's stunning to watch kids get around on computers.

What really disappoints me about most kids today is that they treat the computer+web like an appliance. That is, it offers features 1..n to them, and that's the limit on how they think about it. They don't try to imagine how to make it do any more than it already does, and quite frankly, don't seem to care either. Their facility with the technology doesn't translate into any useful skill, other than being good a good Konsumer.

Contrast this with (our? my?) early computer experience, the machine would turn on and say "READY" (or something) and that was it. You had to invest your time into it to make anything happen, and this engenders a completely different attitude toward technology.

More data good, especially
Submitted by poorgradstudent on April 22, 2009 - 4:50pm.

More data good, especially the raw variety.

alarmclock wrote: Contrast
Submitted by CA renter on April 23, 2009 - 3:53am.

alarmclock wrote:

Contrast this with (our? my?) early computer experience, the machine would turn on and say "READY" (or something) and that was it. You had to invest your time into it to make anything happen, and this engenders a completely different attitude toward technology.
-----------------

Boy, can I relate to that! :)

Good point. Everything is already "done" for today's tech users.