Big Data, Grande Sobrecarga

Um pequeno relato do Big Data do dia a dia, por Stephen Few no qual ele descreve a experiência dele no museu do Louvre; e porque o conceito de big data serve muito mais para vendedores de ferramentas de BI do que para analistas sérios.

[…]We are surrounded by data. In our present day of so-called Big Data, there is more and more of it every day. Anyone who has ever actually worked with data in an effort to make better decisions knows that most of the data that surrounds us is noise. It’s useless. We seek the signals that reside here and there in the midst of the noise. While I stood there in the Louvre this morning, every piece of art was a masterpiece in its own right—every piece a signal—but to me they were all noise because there was too much for my senses to take in or my brain to fathom. Yes, even signals become noise when we’re overwhelmed. I tried desperately to fix my attention on a single piece, but over and over again I failed. I couldn’t shut out the other voices constantly invading my senses yelling “Look at me!”  Yes, I saw the Mona Lisa with her enigmatic smile from behind the barrier while being jostled by the photo-taking crowd, but I couldn’t connect with her or the genius of da Vinci, whose work I so admire[…]