Skeptical About Data

Or more precisely about common errors in data.   Good overview of what the data error can look like.  Problem is we rarely look at this closely enough.    And data is also rarely looked at over time after the model is built to see creeping error.   You should be skeptical about data.  But without the data, where would you be?

I’m a data scientist who is skeptical about data
By Andrea Jones-RooyJuly 24, 2019 in Quartz
Professor of data science, NYU

After millennia of relying on anecdotes, instincts, and old wives’ tales as evidence of our opinions, most of us today demand that people use data to support their arguments and ideas. Whether it’s curing cancer, solving workplace inequality, or winning elections, data is now perceived as being the Rosetta stone for cracking the code of pretty much all of human existence.

But in the frenzy, we’ve conflated data with truth. And this has dangerous implications for our ability to understand, explain, and improve the things we care about.   .... "