A rather harsh and cynical take on data science, but still worth reading. Let me share a story about this. Back in my college days (that would be the 1970s), someone found a New Yorker cartoon and shared it with me. It showed a politician, obviously a very powerful politician because his office had a view of the Washington Monument. He was speaking to his aide “That’s the gist of what I want to say. Now go and find me some statistics to base it on.” So the issues that this person brings up are no different than those from four decades ago. There’s no easy solution to the problem. You can’t say, “I’ll only work with people who have a commitment to the truth, no matter where it might lead” because even people without strong overt biases still have subtle biases that can profoundly skew the results. Requiring a priori specifications and reserving a hold out sample for a final quality check can help, but mostly it is just being careful and detail oriented and transparent in all your work.
Kalve Leetauu. Data Science Has Become About Lending False Credibility To Decisions We’ve Already Made. Forbes Magazine, March 24, 2019. Approximately 2.300 words. Available in html format.