The folly of data mining
The problem we face today is not data scarcity but surfeit – and big data sets can easily be mined and tortured to identify patterns that are utterly useless
Add BT as a preferred source
GARY SMITH
COFFEE was wildly popular in Sweden in the 17th century — and also illegal. King Gustav III believed that it was a slow poison and devised a clever experiment to prove it. He commuted the sentences of murderous twin brothers who were waiting to be beheaded, on one condition: One brother had to drink three pots of coffee every day while the other drank three pots of tea. The early death of the coffee-drinker would prove that coffee was poison.
It turned out that the coffee-drinking twin outlived the tea drinker, but it wasn’t until the 1820s that Swedes were finally legally permitted to do what they had been doing all along — drink coffee, lots of coffee.
TRENDING NOW
Qatari LNG ship struck in Strait of Hormuz, testing US talks
DBS shares rise 1.9% to hit all-time intraday high as sentiment improves
‘Baptism of fire’: Andre Khor on leading Singapore refiner Aster through an energy crisis
Singapore retains top spot as most expensive city for HNWIs, with five Apac cities in global top 10
