Is #data science legit ? — Quartz
▻https://qz.com/1664575/is-data-science-legit
“What does the data say?”
Data doesn’t say anything. Humans say things. They say what they notice or look for in data—data that only exists in the first place because humans chose to collect it, and they collected it using human-made tools.
Data can’t say anything about an issue any more than a hammer can build a house or almond meal can make a #macaron. Data is a necessary ingredient in discovery, but you need a human to select it, shape it, and then turn it into an insight.
Data is therefore only as useful as its quality and the skills of the person wielding it. (You know this if you’ve ever tried to make a macaron. Which I have. And let’s just say that data would certainly not be up to a French patisserie’s standard.)
So if data on its own can’t do or say anything, then what is it?
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