Cool Books

The Signal and the Noise. Where Big Data are concerned, the “trick is to extract the correct signal from the noisy data,” writes Burton G. Malkiel in a Wall Street Journal review of Nate Silver’s The Signal and the Noise (9/25/12). Nate takes issue with “the view that the sheer volume of data will make predicting easier,” and notes that analysts are often distracted by patterns that represent “random noise.”

He notes that it’s easier to forecast the weather and make political predictions than it is to see an earthquake coming, because “half of all earthquakes occur without discernible foreshocks, and periods of increased seismic activity often never result in a major tremor.” read >>