Hello North Carolina

This Wednesday, I'm giving the Big Data Seminar at NC State. Here is the announcement.

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In his new book Numbersense: How to Use Big Data to Your Advantage, Kaiser Fung (NYU & Vimeo statistician) calls attention to one aspect of the Big Data phenomenon that has not received media attention: the consumers of Big Data analyses, i.e. everyone, will face more confusion and less clarity as the volume of data expands. As a result, consumers must develop “numbersense” to judge who or what to believe. 

In this talk, Fung will discuss the statistical challenges arising from Big Data studies, and explain what numbersense is. Some of the key conclusions are contrary to popular belief:

1. Big Data is subjective. 
2. Big Data does not end arguments.
3. Big Data makes mistakes.
4. “Moneyball” is not the rejection of intuition.

Numbersense is difficult to pick up inside a classroom. In Numbersense, Fung illustrates its applications through a series of recent stories on school rankings, the obesity epidemic, digital marketing, economic indicators, and fantasy football.