Dark Data Quotes

“It makes sense to predict likely future performance from past performance. Indeed, we often don’t have much else to go on. Unfortunately, however, the past can be an uncertain guide to the future.”
― David J. Hand, Dark Data: Why What You Don't Know Matters

“All this means, first, is that it’s necessary to be very clear about what question you are asking, and, second, that whether data are dark or not will depend on that question. Trite though it may sound, the data you need to collect, the analysis you will undertake, and the answer you will get depend on what you want to know.”
― David J. Hand, Dark Data: Why What You Don't Know Matters

“So what is going on? For the men and women separately, the crew had a higher survival rate than the third-class passengers. But overall the crew had a lower survival rate than the third-class passengers. This is not a trick—the numbers are what they are.”
― David J. Hand, Dark Data: Why What You Don't Know Matters

“If you change the way data are used, it is perhaps hardly surprising that behavior in collecting those data changes—a feedback phenomenon of the kind we examine in detail in chapter”
― David J. Hand, Dark Data: Why What You Don't Know Matters

“A 2006 study by Amy Barrett and Brent Brodeski showed that “purging of the weakest funds from the Morningstar database boosted apparent returns on average by 1.6 percent per year over the 10-year period [from 1995 to 2004].”
― David J. Hand, Dark Data: Why What You Don't Know Matters

“When you do change the circumstances under which you collect the data—when you intervene—the data are said to be “experimental.” Experimental data are particularly important, because they can give you information about the counterfactuals mentioned in chapter”
― David J. Hand, Dark Data: Why What You Don't Know Matters

“You might have a sense of déjà vu about those first two types of dark data. In a famous news briefing, former U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld nicely characterized them in a punchy sound bite, saying “there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns—the ones we don’t know we don’t know.”6 Rumsfeld attracted considerable media ridicule for that convoluted statement, but the criticism was unfair. What he said made very good sense and was certainly true.”
― David J. Hand, Dark Data: Why What You Don't Know Matters