Logic Magazine: The Smart, the Stupid, and the Catastrophically Scary: An Interview with an Anonymous Data Scientist
Pontifications
- I need to read every back issue of Logic Magazine!
- Why? Because every piece I’ve read is very insightful including The Smart, the Stupid, and the Catastrophically Scary: An Interview with an Anonymous Data Scientist
QUOTE
"So I think a lot of the strong AI stuff is like that. A lot of data science is like that too. Another way of looking at it is that it’s a bunch of people who got PhDs in the wrong thing, and realized they wanted to have a job. Another way of looking at it—I think the most positive way, which is maybe a bit contrarian—is that it’s really, really good marketing.
As someone who tries not to sell fraudulent solutions to people, it actually has made my life significantly better because you can say “big data machine learning,” and people will be like, “Oh, I’ve heard of that, I want that.” It makes it way easier to sell them something than having to explain this complex series of mathematical operations. The hype around it—and that there’s so much hype—has made the actual sales process so much easier. The fact that there is a thing with a label is really good for me professionally.
But that doesn’t mean there’s not a lot of ridiculous hype around the discipline."
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