Recently get a degree in history, anthropology, or literature? Worried about future job prospects? Well, there is hope and surprisingly it is driven not by a new Luddite movement back to simpler times, but instead by the new opportunities being created by the explosion of “big data”.
Increasingly, a wealth of information about our interests, our habits and our lives are being captured in ever expanding information stores. New technology is providing the ability to catalog, process and search this data faster and faster. As information gets cheaper and more plentiful, the value driver becomes the ability to understand and analyze this information, to see patterns and connections, and fundamentally to recognize and capitalize on opportunities.
Here is where the experience gained from a liberal arts degree is valuable. Whether pondering the meaning of the writings of Albert Camus, determining the sophistication of a civilization from pottery shards, or understanding the impact of the words of John Locke on the American Revolution, liberal arts students have had to learn to analyze and make sense of information.
OK, as a history major, I may be a little biased. But I am not the only one who thinks this.
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Big Data Gets the Algorithms Right but the People Wrong
By Mikkel B. Rasmussen and Christian Madsbjerg Bloomberg Business July 16, 2013
It’s hard not to feel a sense of reverence at the scale of all the information we generate. We create so much data every day that 90 percent of the information in the world today has been created in the last two years alone, according to IBM(IBM). To handle all that data, McKinsey estimates that by 2018, U.S. businesses will need 1.5 million new data managers and analysts.
Read full article here
Increasingly, a wealth of information about our interests, our habits and our lives are being captured in ever expanding information stores. New technology is providing the ability to catalog, process and search this data faster and faster. As information gets cheaper and more plentiful, the value driver becomes the ability to understand and analyze this information, to see patterns and connections, and fundamentally to recognize and capitalize on opportunities.
Here is where the experience gained from a liberal arts degree is valuable. Whether pondering the meaning of the writings of Albert Camus, determining the sophistication of a civilization from pottery shards, or understanding the impact of the words of John Locke on the American Revolution, liberal arts students have had to learn to analyze and make sense of information.
OK, as a history major, I may be a little biased. But I am not the only one who thinks this.
_________________________
Big Data Gets the Algorithms Right but the People Wrong
By Mikkel B. Rasmussen and Christian Madsbjerg Bloomberg Business July 16, 2013
It’s hard not to feel a sense of reverence at the scale of all the information we generate. We create so much data every day that 90 percent of the information in the world today has been created in the last two years alone, according to IBM(IBM). To handle all that data, McKinsey estimates that by 2018, U.S. businesses will need 1.5 million new data managers and analysts.
Read full article here
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