Intelligence means selective ignorance. Imagine how intelligent and ignorant we used to be as a people, just 120 years ago. Some of the first uses of sampling techniques in quantitative methods centered around the use of alcohol in society. They really didn’t have very much machine readable data back then (the first use was for the 1890 US Census), so, the practices of data mining weren’t possible. The entire purpose of sampling, and sample statistics, was precisely because no machines could be used to quantify the entire population against some policy question. You try calculating Chi Square on a very large dataset without a calculator or a spreadsheet! Indeed, sampling continues to be used to this day as a cost[…]
Data Science Is Epic