On black holes, blackjack, and data storytelling

When you type “Data science is the new …” into Google, although the search engine doesn’t return “rock ‘n’ roll”, its top two suggestions are “oil” and “investment banking”, two of the most desirable, profit-making enterprises in the history of advanced capitalism. In 2012, a landmark article in the Harvard Business Review dubbed data science “the sexiest job of the 21st century”.

Hey Joe: are you experienced?

The Harvard Business Review is a beguiling publication that divides opinion. Some think it stuffy. Some think it elitist. Others yet think it relevant only to the biggest of big businesses whose first box on the recruitment checklist is “Does she have an MBA?” The reality is rather different, and I’ll hazard that those that […]

Why didn’t Microsoft create Google?

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Why didn’t Kodak create Instagram? Why didn’t Facebook create WhatsApp? Why didn’t the Intercontinental Hotel Group create AirBnB? Once they reach a certain scale and age, even the most innovative businesses can find themselves outflanked by smarter, nimbler upstarts who make one-time disruptors move with all the grace of the corporate dinosaurs they themselves once […]