Science News - Super Crunchers: Why Thinking-by-Numbers Is the New Way to Be Smart

SUPER CRUNCHERS: Why Thinking-by-Numbers Is the New Way to Be Smart
IAN AYERS
Conventional wisdom dictates that experience and intuition are unfailingly valuable when it comes to making decisions. Ayers, an econometrician and a lawyer, makes a case that may revolutionize that mind-set. We have entered an era in which decisions based on the analysis of data sets can produce far better results than decisions based on experience, he says. Companies use data-driven formulas, called super crunchers, to determine everything from who will buy their products (and for how much) to which baseball players have the most promise (without even seeing them play). Companies such as Google, auto-insurance agencies, airlines, and online dating sites have already begun to use super-cruncher technology. Ayers warns readers of the need to be vigilant in the face of such tactics and ponders the ethics, if not the efficacy, of super crunching. Bantam, 2007, 260 p., hardcover, $25.00.

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