Hype is temporary, Intelligence is forever: 2014 in Analytics
Analytics in 2014. What a year.
We hit peak Data Science hype in October. We hit peak Data Science sometime over the summer.
This has a few important impacts for 2015.
The end of that hype will make it harder for the majors to sell binders of plans. It’ll be tougher to find optimistic customers. It’ll be rough going for some of the weaker offers on the market to fake it long enough to make it.
It’ll sort out the ‘transformational change’ shops from the technical shops far more slowly. Markets aren’t nearly as efficient as they should be. It usually takes 180 days for the peak to bite and 270 days for the money to run out. It’s really hard to drive a PS shop down to 0, but I have watched some very creative people figure out how to do it.
The end of hype ushers in the return of substance.
Hopefully that means peak analytics Listicle. Did you know that the term ‘listicle’ derives from the Greek God Listiclees? He makes frequent appearances in stories, reciting the ‘Top 11 reasons why Aphrodite doesn’t like Hephaestus and neither should you’ and the like. They’re usually edited out in the English versions, but they’re there in the Greek versions. It’s true.
Hopefully that means more educational discussions and debates. There is so much substance out there, buried.
It’s the intelligence that lasts though.
The great big data hype cycle certainly captured the imagination of a lot of people. The underlining ideology that if you arm those with good judgement with the good data that they’ll make better choices is pretty much firmly locked in.
A lot more people have accessed analytics. A lot more are aware of the science. And have felt empowered enough to engage some of the data. The increase in numeracy alone was well worth the ride.
More people are better off today because of the data science and big data hype.
I’ll remember 2014 for what was accomplished.
500px acquired Authintic in March. Sometimes the extra effort that goes into structuring a win-win-win is worth it. It was.
It was a huge year for the Toronto Data Science Group. We had 8 meetups and top quality presentations from science, tech, and business. I didn’t have enough seats for everyone who wanted to attend, something that we’ll solve more often in 2015.
The Winter Olympics smashed records and won awards in Canada. FIFA was similarly huge. These were two massive projects and they went very well.
I was happy that Quantified Self technologies advanced, no matter how slowly it’s been advancing. It’s been advancing.
There are two Digital Analytics Association research artifacts that came out – the compensation study and the outlook survey. Both artifacts contain some surprising findings. Those with hard data skills (stats and predictive) are earning a lot more cash than generalists. Better get your skills in order because the rise of the rest is inevitable.
Hopefully 2015 will be just as productive. Post hype.