The Data Detective: Ten Easy Rules to Make Sense of Statistics

by Tim Harford

cheerleaders for big data have made three exciting claims, each one reflected in the success of Google Flu Trends. First, that data analysis produces uncannily accurate results. Second, that every single data point can be captured—the “N = All” claim we met in the previous chapter—making old statistical sampling techniques obsolete (what that means here is that Flu Trends captured every single search). And finally, that scientific models are obsolete, too: there’s simply no need to develop and test theories about why searches for “flu symptoms” or “Beyoncé” might or might not be correlated with the spread of flu, because, to quote a provocative Wired article in 2008, “with enough data, the numbers speak for themselves.”