QOTD: Statisticians are the New Sex Symbols
“I keep saying the sexy job in the next ten years will be statisticians. People think I’m joking, but who would’ve guessed that computer engineers would’ve been the sexy job of the 1990s?”
-Hal Varian, The McKinsey Quarterly, January 2009
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Well, not quite sex symbols. But as Google’s chief economist (and former NYT columnist) Hal Varian observes, statistics are the up and coming sexy mathematics field.
Looking at how technology empowers innovation, he adds:
The ability to take data—to be able to understand it, to process it, to extract value from it, to visualize it, to communicate it—that’s going to be a hugely important skill in the next decades, not only at the professional level but even at the educational level for elementary school kids, for high school kids, for college kids. Because now we really do have essentially free and ubiquitous data. So the complimentary scarce factor is the ability to understand that data and extract value from it.
I think statisticians are part of it, but it’s just a part. You also want to be able to visualize the data, communicate the data, and utilize it effectively. But I do think those skills—of being able to access, understand, and communicate the insights you get from data analysis—are going to be extremely important. Managers need to be able to access and understand the data themselves.
Hat tip Flowing Data
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Source:
Hal Varian on how the Web challenges managers
The McKinsey Quarterly, January 2009 JANUARY 2009
http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Hal_Varian_on_how_the_Web_challenges_managers_2286
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February 27th, 2009 at 12:06 pm
Data masseuses.
February 27th, 2009 at 12:09 pm
that’s got me in status stiches
February 27th, 2009 at 12:09 pm
Now that I think about it, the statistician for my High School basketball team had first pick of the cheerleaders. Dude’s name was Herbert Kornfeld.
February 27th, 2009 at 12:10 pm
DOH!
*stitches
February 27th, 2009 at 12:12 pm
Barry,
31% of the population would agree with this QOTD
February 27th, 2009 at 12:19 pm
Invisible Sun
From the album Ghost in the Machine (A&M)
Words and music by Sting
“I don’t ever want to play the part
Of a statistic on a government chart”
but, hey somebody’s got to provide the answers for the Pre-Crime P.D. div. of DHS, right?
it’ll ‘be cool’..
http://www.stingetc.com/lyrics/
performed, of course, by The Police
February 27th, 2009 at 12:32 pm
lies
February 27th, 2009 at 12:40 pm
Kass: Kill the Quants, Punish the ProBears
So I guess it _is_ a game of chicken then, push ultrashorts until the regulators change the rules again…
February 27th, 2009 at 12:43 pm
Get a laugh from the Onion: “Cash For Gold pays $85, for Fort Knoxs…
http://www.theonion.com/content/radio_news/fort_knox_receives_85_from?utm_source=onion_rss_daily
February 27th, 2009 at 12:50 pm
The best job of the next ten years will be for people who build things. Engineers.
February 27th, 2009 at 12:57 pm
The best job of the next ten years will be for people who build things. Engineers.
Who’ll buy them?
A more secure job will probably be that of fixing things already in place… Mechanics, plumbers, janitors/superintendents..
(I like to think of myself in that category, but Xenu knows what’s in store for me these days :/)
February 27th, 2009 at 1:06 pm
The best job of the next ten years will be for people who build things. Engineers.
Assassin: I have at least a two year backlog on the high end projects, not even returning calls on low end projects.
February 27th, 2009 at 1:09 pm
Who will buy what? You don’t get it. Rebuild society.
February 27th, 2009 at 1:10 pm
“The best job of the next ten years will be for people who build things. Engineers.
Who’ll buy them?”
Surprise: You will! Whether you wan’t to or not. Your government has decided that you are paying taxes for quite a few years into the future to build a few things today. They are certain it is a net gain for you. They back that claim with minimal calculations and very high quality hopes. Pure, good ones.
February 27th, 2009 at 1:18 pm
I think I realized the same thing (that statisticians are the new sexy) when Nate Silver of fivethirtyeight.com started appearing on mainstream news outlets. He’s not an incredibly attractive guy (nor incredible unattractive) but man he could woo the ladies with statistical analysis. Total stud.
-Mike J
February 27th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
So I guess de Tocqueville was wrong, since the Republic endures even now, long after Congress figured out how to bribe us with our own money. Tres stupide, de Tocqueville! That means “three stupids” for all you Francophobes.
February 27th, 2009 at 1:25 pm
How the Common Man Sees It @ 12:12
Yes, but the standard deviation in the sampling data is 25%.
(However, there’s a 10% probability that my assessment is off by more than 5%).
February 27th, 2009 at 1:41 pm
@ Marcus Aurelius: And how did that work out for the H-Dawg? Last I heard, a cash room bitch had his shortie.
February 27th, 2009 at 1:41 pm
If statisticians are sex symbols then these can’t be normal times.
Personally, I think there will be good business for shrubbers.
My joke with the guy in the next cube is ‘canned foods and gardening tools are the next big investments’. It’s sort of a half-joke.
Slightly back on to the topic, I think tools like ‘Processing’, and the need for relevant, current summaries of [where the deals are/where the resources are], like what fivethirtyeight does for polling, will produce a boom in really cool-looking, informative graphics (but, as always, you’ll have to look pat the other 90% of what will be produced, per Sturgeon’s Law).
February 27th, 2009 at 1:47 pm
Personally, I think there will be good business for shrubbers.
NI!
February 27th, 2009 at 2:08 pm
Herring merchants might be okay also.
February 27th, 2009 at 2:08 pm
didn’t relying on the “stats”… get banks into this lovely mess we’re in now…
February 27th, 2009 at 2:20 pm
A different take-
The ability to take data—to be able to twist it, to hide it, to extract political value from it, to visualize the parts of it that support your POV and communicate it—that’s going to be a hugely important skill in the next decades.
The skills that will be more important in ten years are those that can be easily bartered. Higher taxes and inflation will see to that.
February 27th, 2009 at 2:27 pm
Then again, coconuts might also be big sellers since oil is running out and we haven’t bred the horse population back up again.
February 27th, 2009 at 2:30 pm
“The latest move toward the shutting down of free speech on YouTube is the introduction of algorithms that automatically compare audio and video content against databases of copyrighted material. ”
if one understands how ‘statistics’ can be utilized to assist building the algorithms necessary for these kinds of “deep-packet” sniffs, one then understands the Utility of this GOOGre’s transparent ‘recommendation/forecast’..
“Don’t be evil”, just assist Big Brother..
February 27th, 2009 at 2:35 pm
Dr. Noisewater: Ni!
Was Citi the largest tree in the forest?
And does Iceland traffick in herring?
February 27th, 2009 at 3:12 pm
Herring merchants might be okay also.
Two words:
m00se wrängler
February 27th, 2009 at 3:14 pm
m00se wrängler.
Awesome.
February 27th, 2009 at 3:34 pm
Re Nate Silver, you know life’s good when there’s a Facebook group named “There’s a 97.3 Percent Chance That Nate Silver Is Totally My Boyfriend.”
February 27th, 2009 at 5:54 pm
well, I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say a little, very little, monte carlo testing along the banking profit engine and investment chain a while back and someone could have made the cover of Peep’s Sexiest & biggest Hero ~m