Big data isn’t science

Sadly, big data is gong to make marketing LESS scientific for a while. 

Sure, in the short term it'll help predict what flavor yogurt I'm going to buy this week. And thus how much yogurt Lucky's should stock next week.

But it didn't predict the rise of thick, high-protein, "Greek" yogurt. It couldn't predict if it would sell as well if it was called "Irish" yogurt. And it can't predict which of the 20,000 new grocery products launched this year will be winners. 

Big data is all about correlations. They're strong-enough correlations to make short-term prediction. But they're "statistical models", not scientific ones. With no underlying theory of how things work, it's not science.

Time to go work on my Irish yogurt recipe.....