Data Analytics?!!

Can data analytics stimulate your imagination?

A blogger writing about data analytics. Where to begin? I start researching the subject that has come so easily to me in life. Why do I like working in data analytics? After many false starts, I came across the “Did you know?” series on YouTube. There are many versions and different themes. The first, “The progression of information technology” researched by Karl Fisch and the second by AndromedasWake’s Channel.

Now after looking at that with eyes and mouth open with the pumping beat in the background, let’s take a breath and look at what we found out in the last 5 minutes. (Additional information has been updated from teachertube, Social media revolution)

The People
China total population 1,300,000,000.
(Imagine an auditorium with 1300 people and then imagine another 1 million of these auditoriums :-o )

US total population less than India – 25% population with the highest IQ’s

Technical information doubling every 2 years

Today learner will have 10-14 jobs by the time they reach 38yrs old
¼ people employed < 1 year
½ people employed < 5 yrs

2010 - top 10 jobs did not exists in 2004

1/8 married couples in the US met online

In the last 5 minutes, US – 67 babies, China – 274 babies, India – 395 babies

The world is changing as it should. We won’t be able to say to our children “What do you want to be when you grow up?” And the first touch with our life partner may be over cyberspace and not in person.

The Technology
Text Messages
1992 - First sent
Today - Sent everyday exceeds the population of the planet

Google searches
2006 – 2.7 billion a month
Today – 31 billion

Years to reach 50 million
Radio - 38 years
TV - 13 years
Internet - 4 years
iPod - 3 years
FB - less than 9 months (100 million users)
iPod apps - 9 months (1 billion hits)

FB  a country it would be 4th largest between the US and Indonesia but China Qzone larger with over 300 million using there services

Internet devices
1984 - 1,000
(Remember where you were and what type of computer you were using)
1992 - 1,000,000
2008 - 1,000,000,000

Data transfer – 14 trillions (short – 10^12, long – 10^18) bits per second
CD’s = 2,660 per second
Phone calls = 210 million per second

2013 – computer with the computational power of human brain
2049 – computer with the computational power of the entire human species

In the last 5 minutes, 694,000 songs downloaded illegally (I can honestly say I have never downloaded a song illegally :-) )

Technology has made us find different ways of reaching out to more and more people in a shorter time. We no longer have to wait for the news, the news now comes to us. I did not know about MJ’s death until well into the late afternoon when we knew in the early morning. So goes to show if you do turn everything off you may never know but you will eventually find out using one of the mediums, it was FB.

The Knowledge
Words – 540,000 (English language)
                 5x more than in Shakespeare’s time

New York Times – one week is more than information than a lifetime in the 18th century.

Unique information this year 4 exabytes (4×10^19) will be more than the previous 5,000 years.

Wikipedia – 13 million articles
New articles - 156.23 per hour

Blogs – 2,000,000,000 (Can you hear me?)
               54% post content or tweet daily

The people and the technology have given us an amazing knowledge base. Everybody wants to share information, even me! ( makes you wonder what did all the ADD people do before the internet?)

Whether or not you believe the numbers is a totally different question (and won’t be discussed in this forum). What we have done here is all to do with the numbers. We are comparing where we are now to where we once were. Another title for this series is called “Shift Happens”. We are comparing our population change, our technology growth, our extensive knowledge and how we transfer this knowledge all around the world. The numbers show that we have been able to achieve so much in such a short time and the ability to achieve so much more.

 

The AndromedasWake’s version of Did you know? This one made me think about the variances we have in our numbers.(The last 1min 15secs are pretty pictures)

The Universe
Age – aprrox. 13.7 billion years
Size – expands 93 billion light years, 3 dimensions - it has no edge or centre, Matter & energy - less than 5% is detectable
(What is the other 95%?), 100 billion galaxies, septillions (short, 10^24, long, 10^42, so many zeros :-| , doesn’t matter which scale) of stars
Birth – can be reckoned to 10 tredecillionths (short, 10^42 or long, 10^72) of a second before time began (Can we fathom that amount of time?)
No one knows what happen prior to this time (nothing to measure :-( )

The Knowledge
Sun – light generated takes 10,000 years to reach the surface from the centre.
Exoplanet - twice the size of Jupiter and orbits its sun in 3.2 earth days.
(All 4 seasons in 3.2 days)
Shooting stars – millions occur everyday
Neutron star – rotates at 716 times per second, the equator surface achieving 24% the speed of light
Gammar ray burst – releases as much energy in a few seconds than the sun in it’s lifetime
Milkyway – 15 satellite galaxies orbiting
Venus – one day is longer than its year
Saturn – density is so low, the entire planet would float on water
Pluto – water ice is harder than steel

In contrast to the first Did you know, no thump, thump, thump in the background. And also the contrast in the numbers and how much we don’t know. We only know what we can measure and compare to what is known here and now.

Imagine the time light being generated from the sun’s centre today and reaches the surface. What amount of knowledge will we have accumulated? Will we be able to harness all that energy out there? Will we be able to transmit as much data as an exoplanet’s orbit or a neutron star’s rotatation? Will we have the answer to the Before Time question? Too many questions, known and unknown, to be asked ;-) .

The numbers I deal with daily, of course, do not bring out one’s imagination as the one’s we have seen today. But, it is the numbers that reveal the questions and it also the numbers that will show our achievements. This is why I am passionate about data analytics :-) . Yes, some call me mad but data analytics is not boring. 8-)

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  1. Gyanesh K’s avatar

    Very true, that is creativity in numbers and information !!

    Reply

  2. Santhosh N’s avatar

    Data Analysis is an intresting and very productive activity. An organisation who is keen on continous improvement and achive a bechmark, should give atmost important for this.
    Important strategic decisions, problem solving can only be achived through it. Along with analysis it is very important to ‘Collect the right quality of Data’ for analysis. The strategic decisions an organisation may need can be capacity planning, cost cutting without affecting quality, product migration planning, product sourcing allocation, procurement, understand customer ‘value’ etc.
    Only through proper data collection, sampling, analysis and measurement, it can be decided, by the organisation ,’where does the service stand” and set goal for ‘where the service should be’.
    The problems which do not have a visible straight answers will find right definition and solution by analysing and measuring the data.

    Reply

  3. Kunal D’s avatar

    Yes, Data Analytics can really stimulate one’s imagination. Actually, my imagination has run wild after entering into this beautiful world of Analytics. I am trying to change over from a market researcher into an Analytics professional. The day it dawned on me that you could actually draw business insights from data using a good blend of statistics, economics and operations research, i knew this was the career path for me.

    Reply

  4. Ralph W’s avatar

    Absolutely!

    It’s the only way that one can break out of the box of using overused preconceived ideas of the way things work, and get the edge needed to advance to the next level…

    -Ralph W

    Reply

  5. Stefan B’s avatar

    Hi Colleen,

    Yes, I couldn’t agree more. Once we have a look behind the data and realise that there are people and activities, analysis is far from being boring and truly able to stimulate. Having said that, it needs a broader view to be able to understand and control that imagination. Going wild then means adding to the picture and enabling actionable insight. That’s just my 5 cents.

    Stefan

    Reply

    1. Colleen Chan’s avatar

      Cheers for your 5 cents, Stefan.

      Going wild and bringing insight to the numbers is why I enjoy being a business analyst.

      Colleen.

      Reply

    2. Peter M’s avatar

      There is a small danger in letting your “imagination run wild” and that is you may come to a false impression from the results of data processing. Two major human cognition errors make themselves apparent here:

      A) correlation does not imply causation – often times we see a trend where two variables appear to directly correlate and we assume one is dependent upon the other without realizing both could be influenced by another independent variable. Outside temperature, crime rate and ice cream sales all correlate but limiting ice cream sales will not lower the temperature or the crime rate! Imagine only looking at crime rate and ice cream sales statistics and not seeing temperature data. The analytics from there are meaningless but have the appearance of significance. Think of how hard in some organizations it is to disregard a result simply because you don’t feel there is enough supporting evidence. When there are seemingly strong trends it is hard to convince some of the need for caution.

      B) Confirmation Bias – this is the worst kind of cognition error because it is much easier and less time consuming than doing the actual work! In this error people process data and then look at the results. If the results appear to be good they are then taken as fact. The problem with this is you aren’t starting with any hypothesis or theory. “You’ll know it when you see it” type of thing. The main example of this I like to give is the “prophesies” of Nostradamus. They are always after the fact. No one ever makes an accurate prediction ahead of time. They look backwards and find the answer in the data. Never mind there are thousands of points they can’t match up to reality – they are only interested in the few that seem to point to something useful.

      If you can confine your imagination to applying scientific principles to data analytics you will find them useful in making accurate and helpful predictions. Otherwise you may find you can only get useful analysis after-the-fact (which isn’t useful ever!)

      Just my $0.02
      Pete

      Reply

      1. Colleen Chan’s avatar

        My piggy bank is filling up with the coins people are sending me :-)

        I definitely agree with you Peter. But that is where the Business analyst has to know when to draw the line and undertsand the analysis. Never be reactive but always proactive with the analysis.

        Cheers,
        Colleen.

        Reply

  6. John H’s avatar

    Sort of like the Data Analyst who wanted to be an accountant, but didnt have the requried sparkling personality. :-)

    Reply

  7. Durga Sahoo’s avatar

    Thats a nice write-up, Colleen. Puts one in a contemplative mode. Keep them coming. Oh! yes, I too am passionate about Data Analytics. At the end of the day, its all about the numbers.

    Reply

    1. Colleen Chan’s avatar

      Thanks Durga!

      Data analytics is not just for numbers and looking at answers, but something that allows human curiosity to take the numbers further and to new discoveries :-) .

      Reply

  8. Inger M’s avatar

    Isn’t being a data analytic just another way of being nosy? ;-)

    I loved the astronomy video by the way – it was beautiful.

    Reply

    1. Colleen Chan’s avatar

      Definitely not. Data analytics is there for discovery.

      Yes, analytics is there to look at numbers and look at answers but also something that allows human curiosity to take the numbers further.

      Wouldn’t you agree?

      Reply

      1. Inger’s avatar

        Data analytics differ from common curiosity and nosiness by being based on science, methods and also entirely on data and not rumors.

        I mean to make a small joke, though it was a bad one.

        Reply

      2. Miriam’s avatar

        So Colleen, how does Analytics stimulate your imagination?

        (Ref: I have been employed as an Analyst a number of times – in research and finance)

        Reply

        1. Colleen Chan’s avatar

          I think analytics stimulate your imagination as in my example I am comparing the data for the world to the data we have for the universe. The data allows us to imagine the differences. As said before “allowing human curiosity to take the numbers further”.

          I am sorry to hear that you have worked in finance but in research I am sure there were situations where you were surprised by the outcome. I too have worked in research and was always happy and excited or disappointed for the students when they recieved their results.

          Hope this answer’s your question.

          Reply

  9. Carlos M’s avatar

    Part of my job as a consultant has been the creation of stochastic models for the forecasting of variable behavior. It is truly an amazing way of understanding why and how some results are obtained. At least in my case, data analysis is far from being anything boring!!

    Reply

  10. Latisha W’s avatar

    Hi Colleen. I absolutely agree. I think that you have to have a vivid imagination to be an extraordinary analyst. You must be able to conceptualize the various angles/approaches to mine your data accurately, envision the possible outcomes, and be creative in crafting the deliverable (the insight handed over the stakeholder/end-user etc.)

    I love being a Data Analyst/Database Developer. I’m blessed to be able to use my imagination across many angles. This is what I was born to do and wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world! When I look at other disciplines out there, I know that my line of work ranks number one… “information” makes the world go round!

    Reply

    1. Colleen Chan’s avatar

      Hi Latisha,

      I am glad I am not the one who can say “this is what I was born to do” and also a lady, (had been feeling a bit lonely with the comments I have been recieving). Fantastic!

      Reply

  11. Rajesh R’s avatar

    I agree! Data Analytics is all about reviewing large pool of data sets and making meaningful interpretations. We use this in our day to day activities, while we do not concentrate much! Data Analytics can create a spark thinking capability and that too with a difference. It is probably the only chain bringing in a methodology to think differently and out of box.

    Reply

  12. Andy E’s avatar

    Hi Colleen,

    Yes, data analytics can stimulate your imagination, I am one of these raw people who can look at raw data, create the visualization in 3D in my mind, and then draw my visualization on a white board what the number represent and mean to business. Wow, if the world could see what we see :-) .

    Andy

    Reply

  13. Bernard R’s avatar

    In the right circumstances it can stimulate clients’ imagination. Being able to present information drawn from their data can get them asking more questions and more imaginative questions about their data, which in turn can help them think more about how their business operates.

    Reply